In 2006, Chile teemed with protesters after finance minister Andrés Velasco invested budget surpluses from the nation’s historic copper boom in two Sovereign Wealth Funds. A year later, when prices plummeted and unemployment soared, Chile’s government was able to stimulate recovery by drawing on the funds. State-owned investment vehicles that hold public funds in a wide range of assets, Sovereign Wealth Funds enable governments to access an unprecedented degree of wealth. Consequently, more countries are seeking to establish them. Looking at Chile, China, Australia, Singapore, and numerous other examples, including a comparative analysis of Britain and Norway’s use of oil revenues, Angela Cummine tackles the key ethical questions surrounding their use, including: To whom does the wealth belong? How should the funds be managed, invested, and distributed? With sovereign funds—and media attention—continuing to grow, this is an invaluable look at a hotly debated economic issue.

"This report profiles a number of the world's leading sovereign funds. It accompanies another report, Sovereign Investor Models: Institutions and Policies for Managing Sovereign Wealth, which categorizes various types of sovereign investors and provides a detailed discussion of sovereign investors' macroeconomic policy frameworks and governance arrangements. This report examines sovereign investor arrangements across 12 countries and 15 funds or institutions, providing deeper insight into: i) Rule-based approaches to spending and saving commodity revenues; ii) Design of sovereign fund models with income stabilization or long-term wealth management mandates; iii) Governance structures, allocation of roles and responsibilities and intra-governmental reporting lines within sovereign investment entities."--Extracted from Analytical Framework (P. 9).

"Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) are playing an increasingly important role in the management of government windfalls and income surpluses from a variety of sources. The rise of SWFs is reflected not only in the increase in the size of assets under their management - now estimated at over 5 trillion dollars globally - but also in the proliferation of new funds established over the past decade and the anticipated establishment of new funds in countries with recent resource discoveries. This report digs deeper into the roles, practices and governance structures of SWFs. The primary aim of the report is to identify the leading practices among existing funds and establish an analytical framework for assessing the critical policy and institutional aspects that legislators, policymakers and practitioners need to consider in establishing a new SWF or reforming an existing one."--Executive summary.