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Standards and SSOs in the contested widening and deepening of financial markets: The arrival of Green Municipal Bonds in Mexico City.
In a new paper, Hanna Hilbrandt and Monika Grubbauer examine the role of standards and standards-setting organizations in fostering market expansion and financial deepening. In particular, the paper highlight the efforts of standards-setting organizations in implementing a novel financial tool, green municipal bonds. First employed by European, Canadian, and US cities, the paper traces the processes that led up to the issuance of these bonds in Mexico City. Our findings indicate that standards barely impacted project implementation; nevertheless, with the political efforts of standards-setting organizations, standards worked as vehicles through which infrastructures of markets, knowledge, and political support were built, legitimized, and secured. While these processes widened and deepened financialization, they also encountered challenges in terms of the long-term stabilization of these infrastructures and the upkeep of political support.
