Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) represent both an increasingly important - and potentially dominant - category of alternative investor, and a novel form for governments to project their interests both home and abroad. As such, they represent both economic actors and embody power vested in the financial and diplomatic resources they can leverage. Although at times they have acted in concert with other alternative investors, their intergenerational savings function should, in theory at least, promote more long-termist thinking. However, they may be impelled in towards greater short termism, in response to popular pressures, demands from predatory elites and/or unforeseen external shocks.

Of all the categories of alternative investment, SWFs perhaps embody the most contradictory pressures, making for diverse and complex outcomes. The aim of this volume is to consolidate the present state of the art, and advance the field through new applied, conceptual and theoretical insights. The volume is ordered into chapters that explore thematic issues and country studies, incorporating novel insights in on the most recent developments in the SWF ecosystem.

This handbook is organized into four sections and 23 chapters. The four sections are: Governance of SWFs, Political and Legal Aspects of SWFs, Investment Choices and Structures of SWFs, Country and Regional Analyses of SWFs.

Douglas J. Cumming's profile page

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Douglas Cumming, J.D., Ph.D., CFA, is a Professor of Finance and Entrepreneurship and the Ontario Research Chair at the Schulich School of Business, York University. His research covers topics ranging from crowdfunding, securities regulation, stock exchange trading rules, mutual funds, hedge funds, venture capital, private equity, and sovereign wealth funds. He is the Founding Editor of Annals of Corporate Governance, and Co-Editor of Finance Research Letters, and Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, and has been a guest editor for 12 special issues of top journals. Douglas was recognized in 2015 as a Research Leader by York University in 2015 and was the recipient of the Schulich School of Business Research Award in 2015.

Geoffrey Wood is Dean and Professor of International Business, at Essex Business School. Previously he was Professor of International Business at Warwick Business School, UK. He has authored/co-authored/edited sixteen books, and over one hundred and fifty articles in peer-reviewed journals. He holds honorary positions at Griffith and Monash University in Australia, and Witwatersrand and Nelson Mandela Universities in South Africa. Geoff's research interests centre on the relationship between institutional setting, corporate governance, firm finance, and firm level work and employment relations. Geoffrey Wood is Editor in Chief of the British Journal of Management, the Official Journal of the British Academy of Management (BAM). He also serves on the BAM Council. He is also editor of the ABS Journal Ranking list.