Project summary

My PhD project investigates the increased creation of Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWF) over the past 25 years. SWFs are pools of public financial assets that are invested in international and domestic financial markets following commercially-oriented, profit-driven strategies. This new form of state investment is delegated either to an existing public body or to a newly created institution and the choices governments make regarding the governance structures for these funds differ notably between countries. In some, governments can directly influence the investment of SWF assets and the use of their profits. In others, government interference in sovereign wealth management is severely limited by the funds' structures. SWF creation, therefore, impacts the level of influence different public actors can have on the use of public finances as well as the allocation of public finances in the global economy. I explore this phenomenon in the context of economic globalisation, financialization and the global economic crises of the past three decades. Using novel quantitative data on SWF creation and the institutional structures that govern them, case study evidence, and interviews, I investigate the political economy factors that influence governments' use of SWFs as tools to address economic challenges. Through this research, I want to better understand these institutions in the context of the broader process of the increased use of financial markets and financial economic logic in the administration of the state (state financialization). This work also contributes to the growing literature on the revival of industrial policy and developmentalism in the 21st century by analysing the economic and political institutional context in which SWFs serve such purposes. Lastly, my thesis touches on the growing literature on regulatory capitalism. I contrast the institutional context in which SWFs increase governments' power in making investment choices with those in which SWF creation reflects the removal of control over the management of sovereign assets from political actors.

Working papers in this project

"More state for troubled times? Investigating SWF creation as a policy response to global economic challenges" (Draft available on request)

Recent political economy literature has highlighted the revival of state-led financing strategies. It seeks to understand this trend in its connection to rising economic challenges and establish the factors which determine the tools states employ in their economic policy response. This paper addresses these questions by looking at a so far overlooked aspect of state-led financing strategies – the increased creation of Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs). I argue that the negative consequences of economic globalization and financialization has increased states’ motivations for intervention in financial markets to direct economic activity and grow public wealth for future spending needs. This provided new motives to create SWFs as economic policy tools, thereby altering the country-level determinants of SWF creation. The availability of large amounts of natural resource rents or foreign exchange reserves has become less important in explaining instances of SFW creation. Instead, states are more likely to use such funds as economic policy tools if they draw on financial economic logic in policy decisions. The insight of previous research that SWF creation is largely a choice of autocratic leaders is also contested. I test my theories using a panel dataset of 169 countries from 1970 to 2018, featuring novel data on 84 SWF creation instances in 61 countries.

"How states manage their wealth - The political economy of SWF governance" (Draft available on request)

This paper investigates SWF governance structures to gain a better understanding of the role political motives play in SWF decision-making. In some countries, governments take more direct control over SWF investment, making them potential tools for economic statecraft. In other countries, SWF structures, instead seem to reflect pressures towards state financialization as well as regulatory capitalism through the professionalization of sovereign wealth management in the hands of commercial investment experts. I argue that this variation reflects differing prevalent beliefs about the appropriate role and responsibilities of the state vis-à-vis the economy. To empirically investigate this theory, this paper integrates a quantitative outcome-based analysis based on a novel data set on the governance structures of all 86 SWFs in 2020 with five case studies. The findings of this paper improve our understanding of how different countries manage their sovereign wealth and the degree to which differing approaches to state-led financial strategies reflect intentions towards financial economic statecraft.

Independent Instructor

"Contemporary Challenges in International Economic Relations", Seminar in the BA International Relations (Yr2), University of Geneva (Autumn 2018 - current)

"Supervision of Bachelor Dissertation Projects", BA International Relations (Yr3), University of Geneva (Autumn 2018 - Spring 2020)

Guest Lecture

"Introduction to International Relations - Session on International Development", for Dr. Simone Dietrich, BA International Relations (Yr1), University of Geneva (Autumn 2021)

Teaching Experience outside University

Debate Chamber Summer School Courses, London, UK (2018 - 2021)

• Introduction to International Relations
• Introduction to Economics
• Money, Capital, and Financial Markets
• Growth, Development and Inequalities

German Language Cafe Teacher, Colchester, UK (2017-2017)