“You build companies the way other people bake cakes" is a compliment a fellow professor shared with me a few years back. Maybe it’s partly because I’m the daughter of an entrepreneur — the founder of a paint company (even though my dad wanted me to have a "secure job" by becoming a teacher and then a professor, which I’ve done). But I loved, and still love, the adventure of building companies. And I think there’s blue ocean water for...
Facing a make-or-break year to pull Brazil out of its worst recession in over a century, President Michel Temer is betting that reforming the nation’s pension system will restore public and investor confidence. It’s a task that proved too difficult for former presidents as popular as Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and as market-friendly as Fernando Henrique Cardoso. Both Temer and the pension reform are unpopular, but the president has widespread congressional support and argues that he is prioritizing...
“Over the next ten years, we estimate that 7.7million* people will retire. Our recent research** revealed that downsizing their property is the preferred route for two thirds (63%) of non-retired UK homeowners to release their property wealth. Two in five (39%) agree that it’s important to have the option to access their housing wealth. “To be able to downsize, there needs to be enough suitable homes by the time they retire, of the types of homes that retired people want...
El penúltimo mes de 2016 mantuvo la tendencia al alza en los traspasos de las AFPs en el sistema de pensiones chileno. De acuerdo al informe mensual de Ciedess, en noviembre se cambiaron de administradora un total de 62.770 personas, el nivel más alto desde la creación de los multifondos en 2002. Durante el periodo, la AFP que sumó más afiliados con el mayor número de traspasos netos, fue Modelo, con 8.452 personas, mientras que la administradora con el saldo...
By Gordon Clark & Roger Urwin The design and governance of pension funds is an important topic of academic research and public policy and has significant implications for the welfare of participants. Here we focus upon the design and governance of defined contribution (DC) pension plans which have become the de facto model of occupational pensions in most countries. The study synthesises the findings of a year-long research project based upon in-depth interviews with the sponsors and managers of leading...
By Sebastian Galiani, Paul Gertler & Rosangela Bando The creation of non-contributory pension schemes is becoming increasingly common as countries struggle to reduce poverty. Drawing on data from Mexico's Adultos Mayores Program (Older Adults Program) - a cash transfer scheme aimed at rural adults over 70 years of age - we evaluate the effects of this program on the well-being of the beneficiary population. Exploiting a quasi-experimental design whereby the program relies on exogenous geographical and age cutoffs to identify...
If you stop to consider who runs the thousands of mutual funds in America, you might conjure up an image of offices full of men. Then your brain might auto-correct to include some fund managers who are women. But how many? Perhaps you’d estimate that about 30 percent to 35 percent of fund managers are female — which is similar to the number of doctors and lawyers who are women, according to the Census Bureau. In fact, a paltry 9.4 percent...
Once a year, a small group of executives who control trillions of dollars in American companies meet for lunch in Manhattan. Among the things they discuss: pushing for greater say in how companies are run. It is an elite gathering, but you will not see a single man in a suit in the room. The event, called the Women in Governance lunch, underscores a rare corner in finance where women dominate. Women hold the top positions in corporate governance at many...
By Todd Moss and Benjamin Leo - As the concessionary lending window of the World Bank, the International Development Association (IDA) has provided grants and low-interest loans to the world's poorest countries for over 50 years. IDA funds projects that address many of the problems associated with slower growth in developing countries related to primary education, basic health services, clean water supply and sanitation, environmental safeguards, business-climate improvements, infrastructure, and institutional reforms. However, looking to the future, IDA's operations will likely be substantially...
By David Chambers, Elroy Dimson & Antti Ilmanen - The Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global was recently ranked the largest fund on the planet. It is also highly rated for its professional, low-cost, transparent, and socially responsible approach to asset management. Investment professionals increasingly refer to Norway as a model for managing financial assets. We present and evaluate the strategies followed by the Fund, review long-term performance, and describe how it responded to the financial crisis. We conclude with some...
