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POLICY BRIEF 2
National policies towards sovereign wealth funds in Europe: A comparison of France, Germany and Italy
Available for download|
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POLICY BRIEF 1
Western policies towards sovereign wealth fund equity investments: A comparison of the UK, the EU and the US
Available for download|
LSE KUWAIT PROGRAMME WORKSHOP IN KUWAIT
The International Political Economy of Sovereign Wealth Fund investment
22 September 2014
Led by Professor Thatcher, Department of Government, LSE
The project began in January 2011. It examines regulation of investments by Gulf Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) in industrialised nations. The research will identify how such investments have been regulated in the recipient countries. Thus it will analyse how policy makers and regulators in key industrialised countries and international organisations such as the EU have responded to the purchase of significant stakes in companies by Gulf investors. It will examine how and why policies and regulation towards overseas investments vary: at one extreme, national and EU policy makers seek to ‘protect’ domestic firms from overseas investors including Gulf SWFs who are feared, especially in ‘strategic industries’. At the other extreme, these overseas investors have been welcomed as beneficial suppliers of capital and sometimes as essential for saving failing companies. They are seen as correcting structural imbalances in the world economy and ensuring economic growth. The key questions of the research include: whether and how national policy makers try to influence market structure through control over cross-border investments by Gulf investors, and if so, what strategies do they follow? What are the outcomes of such policies? How and why do those outcomes occur? What proposals for regulatory changes have been made and which have been made, and which have been adopted and why? It will focus on sectors that recipient countries have defined as economically and politically strategic sectors- for instance, banking, energy, telecommunications, stock exchanges, transport, ports, defence-related work, and hi-tech sectors. It will study such policies both in European countries and the US and by the EU.
Mark Thatcher
Government Department, LSE
m.thatcher@lse.ac.uk|