State-Owned Enterprises in the Global Economy – Analysis Based on Fortune Global 500 List

Abstract

This paper contains analysis of presence and share of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the Fortune Global 500 list in order to verify the thesis of the growing importance of SOEs in the global economy and to provide some data regarding to the share of SOEs in modern global economy. Our calculations indicate that the number of state-owned enterprises among largest world companies increased from 9.8% to 22.8% since 2005 to 2014. Similar increases were also observed in shares of state-owned enterprises in other analyzed categories (revenues, profits, employment etc.). In order to identify factors that influence these changes we monitor changes of SOEs shares in various industry categories as well as the distribution of SOEs by country. Moreover, we compare findings from our research with results from other studies. According to our findings, the importance of SOEs in the global economy in recent years is increasing and mainly driven by the growth of China and other emerging economies). Other factors are possible (i.e. impact of the global financial crisis on views on the role of the state in the economy) but they require studies broader than analysis of the list of largest companies in the world. Finally, we are trying to identify the causes of these changes and point some topics for future research.