On the occasion of the publication of Foreign States in Domestic Markets: Sovereign Wealth Funds and the West

The European Studies Centre in partnership with the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford.

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Political economy debates have focused on the internationalisation of private capital, but foreign states increasingly enter domestic markets as financial investors. How do policy makers in recipient countries react? Do they treat purchases as a threat and impose restrictions or see them as beneficial and welcome them? What are the wider implications for debates about state capacities to govern domestic economies in the face of internationalisation of financial markets?

In response, Foreign States in Domestic Markets have developed the concept of 'internationalised statism', where governments welcome the use of foreign state investments to govern their domestic economies. These foreign state investments are applied to the most prominent overseas state investors, Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs). Many SWFs are from Asia and the Middle East and their number and size have greatly expanded, reaching $9 trillion by 2020. This book examines policies towards non-Western SWFs buying company shares in four countries: the US, UK, France, and Germany. Although the US has imposed significant legal restrictions, the others have pursued internationalised statism in ways that are surprising given both popular and political economy classifications. The phenomenon of internationalised statism underlines that overseas state investment provides policy makers in recipient states with new allies and resources.

Tim Vlandas is Associate Professor in the Department of Social Policy and Fellow at St Antony’s College, both at the University of Oxford. He holds a PhD in Political Economy from the London School of Economics. His main area of expertise is comparative political economy, with a particular interest in the relationship between electoral politics, public policies and socio-economic outcomes. His research has been published in over 25 academic journals and has received awards from the American Political Science Association and the European Network for Social Policy Analysis. He has recently co-authored a book entitled Foreign States in Domestic Markets: Sovereign Wealth Funds and the West, published by Oxford University Press. His research has been cited by the UK House of Commons, World Bank, International Labour Organisation, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, European Commission, and the United Nations.

Mark Thatcher is Professor of Politics, Department of Political Science, Luiss University, Rome and visiting professor at the European Institute, LSE.  His research interests lie in comparative public policy and regulation in Europe. He has worked on the governance of markets, examining the creation and development of national and EU regulatory agencies, policies towards network industries and general competition policy, as well as neo-liberalism. In recently years, he has worked on Western policies towards Sovereign Wealth Funds. In addition, he is studying comparative policies towards cultural heritage, at both national and EU levels. Recent publications include: Foreign States in Domestic Markets: Sovereign Wealth Funds and the West (with Tim Vlandas) (OUP, 2021), ‘Reversing delegation? Politicization, de-delegation, and non-majoritarian institutions’ (with Alec Stone Sweet and Bernardo Rangoni), Governance 2022 online, ‘Constructing the EU’s political identity in policy making’ (with Sabine Saurugger), Comparative European Politics (2019) and ‘The state and historic buildings: preserving “the national past”’, Nations and Nationalism (2018).

Pepper Culpepper is Blavatnik Professor of Government and Public Policy and Vice-Dean for Academic Affairs at the Blavatnik School of Government and a Professorial Fellow at Nuffield College at the University of Oxford. His research focuses on the intersection between capitalism and democracy, both in politics and in public policy. He is the holder of a five-year Advanced Grant from the European Research Council – Banklash – which seeks to understand how banks and the rules that govern them have once again become objects of democratic contestation since the Great Financial Crisis of 2007-8. His 2011 book Quiet Politics and Business Power: Corporate Control in Europe and Japan (Cambridge University Press), was awarded the 2012 Stein Rokkan Prize for Comparative Social Science Research. In addition to numerous journal articles, he is the author of Creating Cooperation (Cornell University Press, 2003) and co-editor of Changing France (with Peter Hall and Bruno Palier, Palgrave 2006) and of The German Skills Machine (with David Finegold, Berghahn Books 1999). He is a member of the editorial boards of Comparative Political Studies, Journal of Public Policy, and Business and Politics.

Jane Gingrich is Professor of Comparative Political Economy at the Department for Politics and International relations, university of Oxford, and Tutorial Fellow at Magdalen College. She holds a BA from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, and a MA and PhD from the University of California Berkeley. Before joining DPIR and Magdalen College, Jane taught at the University of Minnesota. Her main research interests involve comparative political economy and comparative social policy, - particularly contemporary restructuring of the welfare state, and the politics of institutional change more broadly. Forthcoming articles include "Sorting for Schools: Housing, Education, and Inequality” (with Ben Ansell), Socio-Economic Review; '“Visibility, Values and Voters: the Informational Role of the Welfare State”, Journal of Politics; and “Varying Costs to Change? Institutional Change in the Administration of the Welfare State”, Governance. Jane is the author of Making Multiple Markets in the Welfare State (Cambridge University Press  Studies in Comparative Politics Series, 2011) and Social Policy in Small European States (ed) with Gary Cohen, Ben Ansell and Robert Cox (New York Berghahn Books, Contemporary European History Series, 2012).