If the UK had established in the 1980s a wealth fund in which to invest North Sea oil revenues—similar to what Norway actually did in the 1990s—a UK fund would be worth more than US$703 billion (500 billion British pounds) today, a progressive UK think-tank, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), said in a policy paper published on Wednesday. “A Citizens’ Wealth Fund could also equalise wealth between generations by storing and investing present windfalls for the benefit of future generations who may not have the same revenue streams,” the think tank said, drawing comparisons with the funds in Alaska and Norway, among others. Norway established the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund in 1990 and made the first transfer of oil revenue to the fund in 1996. Today, the fund is worth more than US$1 trillion . In the late 1970s, the UK’s Labour government of Jim Callaghan was […]

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