Quelles sont les relations entre le régime politique d'un état et son fonds souverain en termes de structures et de performance?

Abstract

The sovereign wealth funds are government-owned funds that act as their investing arm. Their wealth is mainly based on oil and gaz or excess foreign reserves. They invest this wealth through various asset classes and different geographical areas using specific investment strategies whose purpose is to create financial returns over a long to very long term time horizon. Their story began in 1953 with the incorporation of the Kuwait Investment Authority, known to be the first sovereign wealth fund. During the 2000s decade, the number of sovereign wealth funds rose exponetially as the oil prices rocketed and the 2008 financial crisis favoured their media coverage as they invested massively in various big financial entities avoiding the collapse of the entire economic system. This master thesis is based on the following question : « What are the relationships between the type of political regime of a state and its sovereign wealth fund in terms of structure and performance ? » The first part is dedicated to the theory of SWFs and political regimes after which we develop our three hypothesis before detailing the methodology and concluding. We also debate the contribution of our research in the area of the sovereign investment ethics.