200114 - The State and Internationalised Investment: Western Policies Towards Sovereign Wealth Funds with Mark Thatcher, LUISS Guido Carli University

Date: 
14 January, 2020 - 12:30 - 14:30

Sciences Po, Room Jean Monnet (Ground Floor), 56 rue Jacob, 75006 Paris

Seminar of the Key Theme : The transformations of capitalism

There are long standing debates in political economy about how internationalisation of markets, especially capital markets, affects the ability of national policy makers to govern their domestic markets. Recent ‘statist’ literatures have argued that far from disappearing, new forms of state action have arisen as part of the internationalisation and liberalisation of markets. Work on ‘economic patriotism’ and ‘economic nationalism’ has argued that states can promote firms as well as protect them, notably through strategically opening certain markets. Their choices are not just accepting ‘free trade’ or closing markets but also shaping markets and aiding national firms through a range of regulatory and financial instruments.

Studies have focused on state policies towards incoming foreign private firms and capital. However, states can also invest across borders. Sovereign wealth funds- SWFs- offer an important example of such international investment. These have grown rapidly in recent years and become significant investors in Western firms. The research examines why, when and how different types of Western state shape cross-border investment in company equities by overseas states. They raise issues of whether states pursue policies of economic openness or closure towards SWFs to aid domestic firms, and also whether SWFs are seen as a threat to national security and if so, how this is balanced with possible economic gains. Key questions are thus: how do state policies differ in terms of economic openness towards overseas state investors? Which specific state actors are involved and what are their strategies and capacities? Why are certain policies adopted and certain instruments preferred over others? Thus the research examines the state playing a double role in internationalised and liberalised capital markets- as international investor and as a policy makers in recipient countries.

Speaker: Mark Thatcher, LUISS Guido Carli University, Department of Political Science

The research expertise of prof. Thatcher lies in comparative public policy and regulation in Europe, and specifically; regulation of network industries; independent regulatory agencies; EU policy making and regulation; regulation of sovereign wealth fund investment; heritage policy and regulation of historic buildings.

His current projects include: comparing policies to preserve cultural heritage; the EU and its political identity; Western policies towards sovereign wealth fund investments. Recent publications include: editor (with Sabine Saurugger), ‘Constructing the EU’s political identityComparative European Politics 17(4), 2019; editor, ‘The state and historic buildings’, special issue Nations and Nationalism 24 (1), 2018;  ‘European Commission merger control: Combining competition and the creation of larger European firms’, European Journal of Political Research 53(3) (2014): 443-464; Resilient Liberalism in Europe’s Political Economy (co-edited with V Schmidt; Cambridge University Press, 2013).

Collective Discussion

Contact: contact.cee@sciencespo.fr

Compulsory registration - For the external people to Sciences Po: You will have to arrive 10 minutes before the beginning of the seminar and to provide you with your identity papers)

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