bahoo.salman@spes.uniud.it

tel. +39 0432 24-9340

(Supervisor Josanco Floreani)

Sovereign Wealth Funds: Past, Present and Future

Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic review of the sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) literature through using a bibliometric citation meta-analysis in order to understand the structure of the research in addition to identifying influential forces affecting this literature (authors and their affiliations, articles, and journals).
Methods
In total, we analyze 153 articles by applying content analysis (using NVivo) during the period 2005-2018 and 116 articles through bibliometric co-citation and cartography analysis (using HistCite and VOSviewer) for the 2005-2016 period.
Findings
We identify three prominent research streams in SWFs literature: (1) SWFs overview and growth, (2) SWFs governance and political concerns, (3) SWFs investment strategies. We also document the most influential aspects of SWFs literature, such as countries, institutions, journals and articles. Journal of Financial Economics is the most influential one in SWFs research, followed by Journal of Corporate Finance and Journal of Financial Intermediation in our sample of 87 journals.
Practical, Research or Social Implications
SWF have had a singular impact of invested firms, pension systems, financial stability, host country recipients and global financial markets. The governance of such funds is thus important both to financial managers and policy analysts.
Originality/Value
The SWF field has matured, and a review article of this research is, thus, warranted. We uncover the bibliometric and cartographic structure of this literature, identifying key themes, trending articles and topics and set an agenda for future research based on these themes.