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The Political Economy of Sovereign Wealth Funds pp 1–25Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

The Political Economy of Sovereign Wealth Funds

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Abstract

A spectre is stalking the world’s governments, businesses and press: it is a spectre of a special type of fund, one that buys strategic resources around the world, hollows out companies, gobbles up financial institutions and threatens the sovereignty of the countries in whose resources and companies it invests. It is the spectre of sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) – dedicated government investment vehicles from China, Russia and the Gulf states, among others. These SWFs, critics declare, are the Trojan horse of states that generally are neither democratic nor share the traditions, political systems or legal systems of many OECD countries. They are ‘the new bogeymen of global finance’ (Plender 2007). To others, SWFs are no more than a financial flare, a fad that will fade quickly as the global financial crisis subsides.

Keywords

  • International Monetary Fund
  • United Arab Emirate
  • Pension Fund
  • Hedge Fund
  • Private Equity

These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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Authors
  1. Xu Yi-chong
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Griffith University, Australia

    Xu Yi-chong

  2. National Defence University, USA

    Gawdat Bahgat

Copyright information

© 2010 Xu Yi-chong

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Cite this chapter

Yi-chong, X. (2010). The Political Economy of Sovereign Wealth Funds. In: Yi-chong, X., Bahgat, G. (eds) The Political Economy of Sovereign Wealth Funds. International Political Economy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230290648_1

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