The single largest holder of wealth in nearly every country is the state, and its citizens. Whether held as commercial assets in the form of land and real estate or as financial assets in sovereign wealth funds, the nature and extent of public wealth is often misunderstood. This seminar will demystify public capital and identify practical opportunities for improvements in its management and deployment.
With: Angela Cummine, University of Oxford; Stefan Fölster, Director of the Stockholm Reform Institute and Assistant Professor of Economics at the Royal Institute of Technology; and Felix Martin, partner and fund manager at Liontrust Asset Management.
This panel is the first in the series, 'Rethinking Public Assets.'
The Centre for the Study of Social Justice (CSSJ) at the University of Oxford's Department of Politics and International Relations (DPIR) has joined with the New Economics Foundation (NEF) and Positive Money to host three high-level seminars to discuss the pressing need for innovation in the management of state economic assets.
With experts from academia, think-tanks and professional practice we aim to develop and take forward practical policy ideas for the governance and management of public wealth, innovations in money and opportunities arising from a better understanding of the ways banking, land values and capital flows are linked.
Radical change in the way state assets are managed could assist governments in tackling major social and economic policy challenges in the UK such as: government and household debt; worsening income and wealth inequality and lack of affordable housing. Clarity around the nature and scale of public assets and how they can be better deployed by governments is needed. Infrastructure financing is a recent but now prominent feature on the political agenda, as is land ownership reform. The possibility of a citizen’s income and a citizen’s wealth fund are also gaining traction in public debate. These seminars will explain these ideas and allow for debate and consensus-building. Each event will include short panel presentations and facilitated discussion with all present.