The Oxford Handbook of State Capitalism and the Firm

Abstract

Abstract This handbook presents the latest theoretical and applied thinking on state capitalism, i.e., the institutional, policy, and ownership arrangements that reflect the direct influence of the state on the economy and firm behavior. It is a timely volume given the worldwide changes regarding the role of the state in the economy. Starting in the 1980s, there was an apparent process of retrenchment from earlier statism that had dominated most world economies since the 1940s, with state-owned enterprises becoming partially and fully privatized, industries becoming deregulated, and economies becoming liberalized by governments. However, in the 2010s the process saw a reversal, both in advanced economies (with governments regulating industries and nationalizing banks and firms to deal with the aftermath of the Great Recession that started in 2008) and in emerging economies (with governments using domestic firms as extensions of economic policy and supporting the international expansion of state-owned firms). This trend has resulted in new and more complex realities of the influence of the governments on firms. This volume explores the processes through which state capitalism has emerged and is sustained, and what sets new state capitalism apart from the old. State capitalism is approached in this volume through a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including history, political economy, finance, public administration, sociology and law.