The Elephant In The Ground: Managing Oil And Sovereign Wealth

B-Tier
Journal: European Economic Review
Year: 2016
Volume: 82
Issue: C
Pages: 113-131

Score contribution per author:

0.670 = (α=2.01 / 3 authors) × 1.0x B-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

One of the most important developments in international finance and resource economics in the past twenty years is the rapid and widespread emergence of the $6 trillion sovereign wealth fund industry. Oil exporters typically ignore below-ground assets when allocating these funds, and ignore above-ground assets when extracting oil. We present a unified stylized framework for considering both. Subsoil oil should alter a fund’s portfolio through additional leverage and hedging. First-best spending should be a share of total wealth, and any unhedgeable volatility must be managed by precautionary savings. If oil prices are pro-cyclical, oil should be extracted faster than the Hotelling rule to generate a risk premium on oil wealth. Finally, we discuss how our analysis could improve the management of Norway’s fund in practice.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:eecrev:v:82:y:2016:i:c:p:113-131
Journal Field
General
Author Count
3
Added to Database
2026-01-29