This book explores the geographical constitution and footprint of stock markets to contribute to broader debate on the role of stock markets in the global economy. Mainstream financial economics treats stock markets as consisting of anonymous actors interacting in space with no friction of distance or any other significance of geography. This book challenges this view, focusing on stock markets consisting of issuers, investors, and intermediaries that have locations and relate to each other in a real space of regions, cities, and countries. It uses insights from economic geography, financial e ... More

This book explores the geographical constitution and footprint of stock markets to contribute to broader debate on the role of stock markets in the global economy. Mainstream financial economics treats stock markets as consisting of anonymous actors interacting in space with no friction of distance or any other significance of geography. This book challenges this view, focusing on stock markets consisting of issuers, investors, and intermediaries that have locations and relate to each other in a real space of regions, cities, and countries. It uses insights from economic geography, financial economics, sociology, history, and globalization studies. The book offers a theory of stock market centres as concentrations of stock market intermediaries, investors, and issuers' headquarters, connected through a global network. Empirically, the book documents the rise of emerging markets, the impact of the global financial crisis, the revolution in the stock exchange business model, and the continued dominance of London and New York as stock market centres. The book argues that stock markets exhibit multiple biases, and their footprint is highly uneven. There is a core‐periphery pattern in stock market development at global and national levels. The book suggests that despite the recent boom, there remains a large potential for the future development of stock markets. Thus, the book shows how the map of stock markets is being redrawn at the start of the twenty‐first century, and how central this map is to understanding the structure and dynamics of the world economy.