Breaking the bank?

List of Tables and Figures xiii
List of Abbreviations xv

1 Introduction 1
1.1 The Multifaceted Regulatory Power of Indicators 2
1.2 Breaking the Bank? 4
1.3 So, what? 5
1.4 Outline of the Book 6
1.5 The Take Home Message: Conclusions on the Stress Test and Beyond 8

2 What We Know and What’s Left to Learn 11
2.1 The Simultaneous Development of Statistics and the State 11
2.1.1 Measurement as a Project of Modernity 11
2.1.2 Making Society Legible 12
2.1.3 Representation and Standardisation 14
2.1.4 Booming Bureaucracies 15
2.2 Bureaucracy Isn’t Enough 16
2.2.1 New Public Management 16
2.2.2 Performance Indicators and Regulation 17
2.3 From Knowledge Use to Knowledge Co-Production 19
2.3.1 Contesting Calculation 19
2.3.2 The Coproduction of Knowledge and Politics 20
2.3.3 How Knowledge Is Made 21
2.4 Outlining a Research Agenda 23

3 Methodology and Methods 25
3.1 Why? My Philosophy of Science 25
3.1.1 In Search of Meaning 25
3.1.2 If You Judge a Fish by Its Ability to Climb a Tree 28
3.2 How? Generating and Analysing Data 30
3.2.1 Case Selection: Why the Stress Test? 30
3.2.2 Selecting Respondents: Mapping for Exposure 31
3.2.3 Reflexivity and Positionality 33
3.2.4 Getting Dirty With Data, Abductively 34
3.2.5 Interviews 35
3.2.6 Coding and Analysing 37
3.3 In Conclusion: What My Data Can and Cannot Do 38

4 How Indicators Measure: The Incommensurables 41
4.1 How Banks Are Measured 41
4.1.1 Why Care About Commensuration? 43
4.2 Measurability and Commensuration 44
4.2.1 The Incommensurables 45
4.2.2 Studying Commensuration With ANT 46
4.3 Commensuration in Action 47
4.3.1 Problematisation: Should Banks Be Commensurated? 47
4.3.2 Interessement and Enrolment: To Commensurate, or Not to Commensurate? 48
4.3.2.1 Commensuration at Any Cost? 48
4.3.2.2 Claiming Incommensurability 51
4.3.3 Mobilisation: Designing for Results 54
4.4 How Indicators Measure: It’s Not About the Numbers 56

5 How Indicators Manage: Using Numbers That Don’t Count 61
5.1 The Performance Management Paradox 61
5.2 The good, the Bad and the Ugly 63
5.2.1 Manifest Functions of Performance Indicators 63
5.2.2 Dysfunctions of Performance Indicators 64
5.3 The Latent Functions of the EU-Wide Stress Test 65
5.3.1 The Numbers Aren’t Right 66
5.3.2 Rituals of Verification 67
5.3.3 More Than Just a Ritual: Governmentality 69
5.4 How Indicators Manage: Latently 71

6 How Indicators Make: A Big Data State of Mind 75
6.1 Making Decisions With Data 75
6.2 Big Data and a Big Data State of Mind 77
6.2.1 Rethinking Transparency and Accountability 79
6.3 The Stress Test and a Big Data State of Mind 81
6.3.1 When Theory Fails, an Arms Race for Data 81
6.3.2 The Regulatory Implications of a Big Data State of Mind 83
6.3.3 Black Boxes, Big Data, and Accountability 85
6.4 How Indicators Make: Seeing the World Through Data 86

7 Conclusion 89
7.1 Key Findings 90
7.1.1 How Indicators Measure 90
7.1.2 How Indicators Manage 91
7.1.3 How Indicators Make 93
7.2 Breaking the Bank? 94
7.2.1 Are the Stress Tests Tough Enough on Banks? 94
7.2.2 Do the Benefits of the Stress Test Outweigh the Costs? 95
7.2.3 Does the Stress Test Help Us Understand Which Banks Are ‘Broken’ and Why? 96
7.3 A Future for Performance Management: Wider Implications, Recommendations, and Avenues for Further Research 97
7.3.1 Communicative Rationality and Legitimacy 98
7.3.2 Governmentality, Validity, and Reliability 99
7.3.3 Data-Driven Indicators and Accountability 100

References 103
Appendices 127