Degree Type
Honors Capstone Project
Date of Submission
Spring 5-1-2011
Capstone Advisor
Matthew Huber
Honors Reader
Derek Laing
Capstone Major
International Relations
Capstone College
Citizenship and Public Affairs
Audio/Visual Component
no
Capstone Prize Winner
no
Won Capstone Funding
no
Honors Categories
Social Sciences
Subject Categories
International and Area Studies | International Business
Abstract
The subject of petrodollar recycling has frequently captured the interest of academics, politicians and the media. Specifically, the issue typically boils down to one central question: where exactly are the petrodollars—revenue earned from the sale of oil—flowing? According to traditional scholars like Bernard Mommer and Terry Lynn Karl the recurring argument is that in oil-exporting nations, oil revenues are channeled directly into the hands of a few government officials resulting in corruption, inequality and economic decay.
However, the main limitation of this traditional argument is that it tends to focus solely on the dynamics between the national level and local communities. With the increasing trends of globalization and financialization, I find the traditional viewpoint to be outdated and too narrow in focus. Hence, I argue that when the perspective is expanded from the national to the international an intriguing aspect materializes: in reality, the majority of oil revenues are actually flowing out of the state and into global financial markets.
Before I examine how petrodollars reach international financial markets it is necessary to review the traditional literature regarding oil-exporting nations. Hence, section one assesses the classic tale of oil-exporters and concludes with the introduction of a new actor for managing oil revenues: Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs). Since they are a relatively unknown concept, section two serves as a general introduction to sovereign wealth funds. Next, section three elaborates on the previous discussion by providing an in-depth case study of the main Middle Eastern funds while section four examines the impact of these funds on international finance. Lastly, in section five I return to the traditional concept of the resource curse and examine how sovereign wealth funds impact their domestic economies.
Over the past ten years, the rise of sovereign wealth funds as major players in international finance has generated a wide array of sensationalist perspectives and has left the general public with a sense of confusion regarding the true nature of sovereign wealth funds. Thus, my goal is to provide a more realistic and pragmatic view of the role of sovereign wealth funds in both their international and national space.
Recommended Citation
Sollod, Michelle, "Sovereign Wealth Funds: Global and Domestic Implications of the Rise of a New Major Player in International Finance" (2011). Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All. 294.
https://surface.syr.edu/honors_capstone/294
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
