Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 03/2015

Host governments should not treat state-owned enterprises differently than other foreign investors

Steven Globerman

January 2015

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment

Abstract

Widespread skepticism from host country governments rests on the presumption that SOEs are motivated by non-commercial objectives. Even if true, the discipline of competitive pressures in the marketplace, along with existing regulations, ensures that the costs of inefficient behavior will be borne primarily by the SOE’s owners.