Abstract:

The new international division of labor brought about by globalization has made the global production network (GPN) an important framework for the study of global economic and regional development. At the same time, the status of finance in the operation of modern social economic systems is increasing. Economic financialization has a significant impact on the spatial distribution and network of economic activities at different scales in the world. Therefore, finance has become the necessary basis of production activities in GPN. More importantly, the logic brought by financialization has profoundly affected the operation and change of GPN. Although GPN research has been paying attention to the role of finance and has begun to study the GPN of financial industry, inadequacies still exist. As increasingly more firms are integrated into the global capital market by obtaining international equity investment or listing in overseas capital market, it is difficult for the GPN framework to thoroughly analyze this phenomenon. Global financial Network (GFN) provides a new framework for describing and analyzing this process. In this analytical framework, local economies connect with world cities (international financial centers) and offshore financial jurisdictions through advanced business service (ABS) firms, thus forming GFN. This article first introduced the basic concept of GFN, including its main entities and network structure. Then we discussed the ways and further influences for cities or regions to integrate into GFN, focusing on the global-local economic linkages built by this process. Finally, we put forward the direction of further theoretical and empirical research of GFN in the future.

Key words: global production network, global financial network, global-local economic linkages, regional development