Travis Selmier

Indiana University, Political Science, Visiting Scholar

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Research interests include language economics, politics of international banking, property rights of financial goods, East Asian banking and mining CSR. A former Wall-Streeter, I'd researched/visited >60 countries, enjoying food & drink in each. When not writing, I garden, build things out of stone & wood, cook, read poetry, art & economic history. I'm also a language nut. My latest research projects analyze social capital & informal lending in Wenzhou, and look at mining MNE strategy.

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Katherine Butler Schofield

King's College London

Andrew Nicholson

SUNY: Stony Brook University

Lik Hang Tsui

City University of Hong Kong

GEETA KOCHHAR

Jawaharlal Nehru University

Bérénice Guyot-Réchard

King's College London

Richard Payne

Graduate Theological Union

Lee Irwin

College of Charleston

Brooke Schedneck

Rhodes College

Sudeep Kumar, (PhD)

Indian Council of World Affairs

Avinash Godbole

O.P. Jindal Global University

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Papers by Travis Selmier

Kazakhstan as Logistics Linchpin in the Belt and Road Initiative

Euro-Asian Studies

Between China and Russia and East Asia and Europe, Kazakhstan’s strategic position on the New Sil... more Between China and Russia and East Asia and Europe, Kazakhstan’s strategic position on the New Silk Road empowers it as a logistics linchpin. Combining Kazakhstan’s geographic position, political stability, relatively high per capita income, highly developed energy sector and the fact that the old Silk Road ran along Kazakhstan’s southern border has catalyzed development of an integrated transport complex where logistics, air transportation and financial and business services come together to promote establishment of regional headquarter hubs. Integration would expand and develop facilities which encompass “The Four Rs” of transportation: road, rail, runway and river/sea. While this outcome may be part of Kazakhstan’s destiny, sophisticated planning and development is necessary, and this will require integration and coordination between Khorgos, Almaty, Nur-Sultan and ongoing Chinese investment.

Language and International Trade: How Similarities in Trading Partnersâ Languages Lead to Closer Trading Ties

The UN Global Compact: Fair Competition and Environmental and Labour Justice in International Markets

Advances in Sustainability and Environmental Justice, 2015

Since UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan launched the Global Compact in 1999, over 12,000 organisati... more Since UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan launched the Global Compact in 1999, over 12,000 organisations around the world have voluntarily adopted and promoted its values and Ten Principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and corruption. This corporate citizenship initiative has been seen as a non-compulsory alternative to international market regulations. Around the globe, the UN Global Compact has promoted the creation of local and regional networks for businesses to act together to mainstream the Ten Principles. This edited volume brings together international contributions on the specific implications for business when embracing the Global Compact. Managerial, internationalisation, legal, behavioural and sociological perspectives are explored in this volume in which both evidences and theoretical developments are reflected.

Global Closure, Crises and Financial Markets: A Commentary

JIBS Special Collections

Netizens and Private Monitoring in Chinese Banking

International Finance Review, 2016

Abstract Purpose Much of the criticism directed toward banking in China revolves around self-deal... more Abstract Purpose Much of the criticism directed toward banking in China revolves around self-dealing in relationships between bankers and their clients. Corruption, nepotism, high levels of non-performing loans, and the inefficiency of government-directed lending have all been laid at the door of embedded guanxi networks. While valid to an extent, this criticism ignores two important, related points: guanxi networks bring disciplining mechanisms as well as the potential for corruption, and those mechanisms may improve banking governance. Methodology/approach Employing theory from relationship banking, information economics, and the business ethics of guanxi, I examine how monitoring by netizens will lead to greater disclosure. Findings Relationship banking in a Chinese context – with the influence of guanxi in banking – further increases reputational costs when self-dealing is uncovered. Costs of bad banking behavior are increasing just as benefits from staying rich increase. Increased disclosure affects chances of staying rich as disclosure increases the chance that a corrupt relationship will lead to loss of wealth and reputation. Research limitations/implications This paper presents a theoretical construct informed by selected examples. An empirical analysis of netizen monitoring leading to improved banking governance would provide additional support for the theoretical construct. Practical implications Bankers, financiers, and government officials must be aware of monitoring by netizens, which forces more ethical financial contracting. Social implications Rather than weakening financial system governance, guanxi may begin to strengthen the disciplinary measures inherent in relationship banking as information disclosure increases and private sector monitoring grows. Originality/value This paper provides an extension to private monitoring theory in financial contracting which may be applied to netizen monitoring in other regions and countries.

Writing the Social Contract: Integrating the UN Global Compact and Mining CSR

The UN Global Compact: Fair Competition and Environmental and Labour Justice in International Markets, 2015

Under African skies – mining TNCs in Africa and the Sustainable Development Goals

Transnational Corporations, 2017

Interaction between transnational mining companies (mining TNCs), governments, mining industry bo... more Interaction between transnational mining companies (mining TNCs), governments, mining industry bodies and local communities is critical to advancing several of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Mining TNCs may be leaders or conspicuous laggards in this regard. Some larger mining companies have made significant corporate social responsibility (CSR) progress and implemented effective sustainable development, thereby boosting their legitimacy. Individually, some African countries have established global, standard, mining codes of conduct; collectively, African governments are organizing to establish regional licensing standards, CSR guidelines and codes of conduct such as the Africa Mining Vision. Comparing two mining TNCs cases, we illustrate paths of progress and problems and predict their directions in Africa. Although we expect the United Nations Global Compact and the Global Reporting Initiative to remain the main vehicles and provide benchmarks that move the mining industry towards achieving the SDGs, these vehicles need to be expanded to include targets that currently are only implicit, such as gender equality and sustainable community development.

An institutional perspective on governance, power, and politics of financial risk

Business and Politics, 2017

Avoidance of risk and increasing returns are the two main motivators in finance. Returns are bett... more Avoidance of risk and increasing returns are the two main motivators in finance. Returns are better understood and perhaps more easily regulated than financial risk, which is a complex and slippery concept. Financial risk may be best conceived of as a complementary good, but the nature of this good varies as the size of the investment position scales up. That is, the effects of financial risk may be conceived of as a private good for a small financial actor, but becomes a club good, then a common pool, and occasionally a public good as the impact of the investment position's financial risk spreads to affect more of society. Examining banking history shows us that banks and bankers have offset risk while retaining returns through structuring financial products and investment vehicles as club goods, thereby enabling financial actors to jointly benefit from ownership while harming those outside the club walls. Not surprisingly, this capacity to push risk outside club walls has grow...

Why the english-speaking world needs confucius institutes

International Communication of Chinese Culture, 2015

Abstract Advantages of speaking English as a native speaker have been discussed and debated widel... more Abstract Advantages of speaking English as a native speaker have been discussed and debated widely. English has developed into a global lingua franca in business, culture, education and diplomacy. English “demand” includes institutional demands and individual demands for language to achieve better employment and enjoy English-language goods. Supply can be seen in these English-language goods, the use of English in institutional settings, the robustness of this language, and an increasing supply of English speakers through learning English as a second language. But within the dynamics of this development lie the seeds of a disadvantage for native English speakers. As the educated world learns English, personal advantage may shift away from the native English speaker toward those speaking English plus other languages. Given lower levels of foreign language-learning in the Anglophone world and increasing numbers of multilingual non-native English speakers, native English speakers may see their advantage disappear. Integrating international business and trade theory with sociolinguistics and language economics this paper argues that native English speakers will face a disadvantage in twenty firsts century due to their English dependency and Confucius Institutes may help young native English speakers overcome this emerging disadvantage.

FERMiers required: applying watershed governance to banking and finance

International Journal of the Commons, 2016

This paper conceptualizes financial markets as virtual environments which should be subject to st... more This paper conceptualizes financial markets as virtual environments which should be subject to stewardship requirements found in natural environments. As in natural environments, irresponsible self-governance and lax or off-target regulation result in environmental damage and social loss. Watershed governance is proposed as the best-fitting analogy to financial markets governance for seven reasons: 1, scaling the watershed analogy from small to large fits well with financial markets; 2, both consist of a variety of users who 3, tap hydrologic [capital] resources for many different uses. 4, financial markets, like watersheds, are made up of private, club, common pool and public goods, and 5, may be better-managed through polycentric institutions with a range of public-private governance arrangements. 6, governmental, private sector and mixed agents seek to support and manage [sustainable] exploitation in each. 7, environmental degradation comparisons are robust. Upstream-downstream interlinkage and crossborder riparian negotiations in combination with financial market cases illustrate challenging financial market governance issues.

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Design rules for more resilient banking systems

Policy and Society, 2016

Effective financial policy design should incorporate design principles encouraging financial acti... more Effective financial policy design should incorporate design principles encouraging financial activity and innovation while discouraging excessive risk-taking, into an inclusive, environmental approach to financial system governance. Examining banking systems in Australia, Brazil, Canada and China-whose financial systems proved more resilient than those in the US and much of Europe in the recent global financial crisis-helps us to uncover design rules which strengthen the financial environment and enhance financial resilience. In effect, policy-makers in these four countries struck an oligopolistic bargain with their domestic top banks. This bargain established national banking boundaries behind which indigenous national banks developed, protected banks from foreign competition and threat of acquisition, and enabled banks to pursue lower risk banking business. In return, banks acted as stewards of their financial environments. This bargain recognized the interlinked, network nature of financial risk and integrated governmental regulation with private actor governance structures.

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Language Matters: Languages' Transaction Cost Effects on Trade and Foreign Direct Investment

The research was conducted in order to identify the polymorphism of MspI and AluI locus of the gr... more The research was conducted in order to identify the polymorphism of MspI and AluI locus of the growth hormone (GH) gene in Bali, Limousine and Simmental cattle. Total blood samples of 87 cattle were taken from population of Bali cattle were collected from Balai Pembibitan Ternak Unggul Sapi Bali in Bali island, whereas Limousine and Simmental cattle blood samples were collected from Balai Inseminasi Buatan (BIB) Singosari-Malang, West Java. PCR-RFLP and sequencing methods used to detect the polymorphism and mutation at MspI and AluI loci of GH gene. The results showed that at MspI locus, the Bali, Limousine and Simmental cattle had one genotype (-/-), three genotypes(+/+, +/-, -/-) and two genotypes (+/+, +/-), respectively whereas for AluI locus, the Bali, Limousine and Simmental cattles had one genotype (LL), two genotypes (LL, LV) and three genotypes (LL, LV, VV), respectively. The allele frequencies of + and -alleles in Bali, Limousine and Simmental cattle were 0.000 and 1.000; 0.636 and 0.364; 0.889 and 0.111 respectively, whereas the frequencies of L and V alleles in Bali, Limousine and Simmental cattle were 0.000 and 0.000; 0.818 and 0.182; 0.694 and 0.306 respectively. Based on polymorphic informative content (PIC) value, it can be concluded that MspI and AluI loci in Bali cattle are monomorphic, while in Limousine and Simmental cattle is polymorphic. Based on the sequencing results, the MspI (+/+ and -/-genotypes) and AluI (LL and VV genotypes) loci showed a occurrences of nucleotide base mutation from cytosine (C) to thymine (T) and cytosine (C) to guanine (G), respectively.

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Members Only: The Decline of Partnerships and the Rise of Club Good Structures in Investment Banking

Although little-appreciated, banking has long consisted of types of club goods and club good mark... more Although little-appreciated, banking has long consisted of types of club goods and club good market structures. Initially, merchant banks were clubs that consisted of a small number of partners and apprentices crafting trade finance and helping to finance wars. Mid-nineteenth-century investment bank partnerships employed their “reputational capital,” then more important than informational and financial capital. But presently there are few partnerships. This paper chronologically follows the transformation of merchant banking into investment banks, then into the SIFIs of today [Systemically Important Financial Institutions], through the prism of two areas of technological change: new ICTs [information and communication technologies], and “internal” technologies of an organizational or product-development nature. Over the course of this two-century transformation, the importance of the three forms of capital in a bank changed dramatically: financial capital needs skyrocketed as reputa...

Does Banking Regulation Cause Counterproductive Economic Dynamics?

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2013

This essay aims at highlighting the linkage between current international banking regulation (nam... more This essay aims at highlighting the linkage between current international banking regulation (namely, that produced by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision) and economic activity, which is proxied by the S&P500 stock market index. It is revealed that the amount of regulatory documents published per year affects stock market performance, but only for the next two years. Discussion on the probable reasons for this is included.

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Why club goods proliferated in investment finance

Handbook of the International Political Economy of Monetary Relations

Why are there many club goods, and club good market structures, in investment finance? Why has th... more Why are there many club goods, and club good market structures, in investment finance? Why has there been such a proliferation of these types of goods and transaction structures in modern finance? The answers lie in the motivations and methods of financial firms to segment, package and offset risk and to increase profit potential.This paper presents a theoretical argument as to why, and how, financial products may migrate toward a club goods nature, differentiating between financial goods as units and “financial products” as a set of those unit goods. To develop this idea, I employ a goods typology matrix developed by the Ostroms and refined by McNutt. I introduce the concept of transmutation, in which actors employ technology and developments in theoretical finance to package financial goods into new financial products whose resultant property rights shift their good type in this typology matrix. Financial firms are active agents in this process through innovation, commonly called financial engineering.I then track the concurrent development, over the last half-century, of mortgage-backed securities and of financial “engineering” — the application of advanced mathematical techniques to develop new financial products. Financial firms are self-designing organizations whose organizational fluidity and capacity to financially engineer not only permits, but encourages and rewards, the design and redesign of financial goods. Property rights structures may change as a result, shifting along either or both dimensions of the financial goods typology. Pulling conceptual scaffolding on club goods from public choice and environmental economics gives us a new structural perspective on financial goods and empowers us with better governance ideas from these extensive literatures.

Financial Risk as a Good

Procedia Computer Science, 2014

“Understanding the words of relationships”: Language as an essential tool to manage CSR in communities of place

Journal of International Business Studies, 2014

ABSTRACT Multinational enterprises (MNEs) encounter relentless stakeholder pressures when operati... more ABSTRACT Multinational enterprises (MNEs) encounter relentless stakeholder pressures when operating across linguistic, cultural and institutional boundaries. Our aims are to examine whether and how acquisition of language resources may help MNEs to bridge these boundaries and reduce pressures on MNE legitimacy by improving their corporate social responsibility (CSR) outcomes. We propose an MNE model of language resource acquisition policy based on three language orientations: “language-as-problem,” “language-as-resource” and “languageas- right.” Using sociolinguistic tools – an “ecological” analysis of how language affects MNE–stakeholder relationships – and surveying 15 mining MNEs from Australia, Canada, China, South Africa, Switzerland and the United Kingdom operating in East Africa, our research found some MNEs employ regional lingua francas like Swahili and local leadership practices to build sustainable relationships with local stakeholders. These local stakeholders are members of communities of place (CofP), who steward the land their ancestors have inhabited for centuries, and their voices have grown as to how that land is used. As their voices have grown, MNEs should improve CSR outcomes with CofP through better communications. A well-designed language acquisition policy may improve such communication and so fend off threats to MNE legitimacy.

Economic Diplomacy and International Trade: ASEAN’s Quest to Value-Claim

The World Economy, 2012

ABSTRACT Utilising economic diplomacy theory, this study specifies a statistical model to reveal ... more ABSTRACT Utilising economic diplomacy theory, this study specifies a statistical model to reveal ASEAN members’ capacity to negotiate better international trade outcomes. Examining imports into ASEAN members from 134 nations between 1980 and 2001, we find that ASEAN’s diplomats were able to pursue more ‘value-claiming’ in economic diplomacy than expected. While our results support the commonly accepted view in economic diplomacy that smaller nations are pressured to accept trade outcomes desired by larger nations, we also find support for a new perspective: smaller nations obtain more favourable trade outcomes, as members of a regional trade bloc, which cannot be achieved as individual nations. We find that ASEAN’s conversion to a fully fledged regional trade agreement in 1992 significantly enhanced this capacity. This study adds a different perspective to the substantial literature examining cases in trade and economic diplomacy.

The Power of Major Trade Languages in Trade and Foreign Direct Investment

Review of International Political Economy, 2013

Using Health and Retirement Study data linked to summary plan descriptions and W-2s, this study r... more Using Health and Retirement Study data linked to summary plan descriptions and W-2s, this study reports trends in retirement wealth inequality of older employees 1992-2010. The study identifies and corrects methodological flaws in past research. Retirement wealth is highly unequally distributed; the top lifetime earnings quintile holds half of all retirement wealth, the bottom quintile, only 1 percent. The top earnings quintile fared better in 2010 than in 1992, whereas bottom-quintile earners fared worse. But retirement wealth inequality mainly reflects inequality within earnings quintiles, resulting from inadequate savings, not outsize accumulations. Systemic flaws reduce median retirement wealth by 84 percent.

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