Sovereign Wealth Funds and Ethical Investment Guidelines: The Role of Regime Type

Abstract

In the popular discourse it has often been implied that SWF investments from non-Western economies with low democracy levels are driven by political imperatives. If that is true then how can we explain that SWFs from Western democratic countries adopt ethical investment guidelines, which are often linked to politics? In order to explain that the present article takes a comparative approach by looking at regime types, domestic debates and the sequences in which ethical investment guidelines were adopted across SWFs. Therefore it looks at 10 of the most transparent SWFs. High levels of transparency allows for close scrutiny and monitoring of the SWFs investment practices, specifically by a country’s population. However, the rule set governing the interactions between the government and population can vary significantly across countries. Based on the case study findings this article is able to formulate an initial hypothesis: SWFs of countries with parliamentary systems and high levels of political freedom are more likely to adopt ethical investment guidelines.