I investigate sovereign risk management using expected utility theory. A proposition is derived under which conditions which degree of hedging is optimal. An application to the case of Russia shows that a risk-acceptant attitude can serve as an explanation of the decisions to bail out Rosneft...

Firstly, two seemingly unrelated topics of Russian politics are investigated. It is shown that under expected utility maximization the assumptions of an unbiased oil forward market and a risk-acceptant attitude (strictly convex utility function) of president Putin are sufficient to explain...