May 2022

Effect of Pensions on the Capital Market

By Sang Wook NAM This study analyzes the impact of public and private pensions on the capital market to examine the empirical arguments for the need for pension development. To this end, we conduct an empirical analysis of the effect of pension assets on the capital markets in 17 OECD member countries. The methods comprise static and dynamic panel analyses, which are conducted in parallel based on panel data on the stock and bond markets and the asset sizes of...

April 2022

The New Corporate Governance

The New Corporate Governance

By Oliver D. Hart & Luigi Zingales In the last few years, there has been a dramatic increase in shareholder engagement on environmental and social issues. In some cases shareholders are pushing companies to take actions that may reduce market value. It is hard to understand this behavior using the dominant corporate governance paradigm based on shareholder value maximization. We explain how jurisprudence has sustained this criterion in spite of its economic weaknesses. To overcome these weaknesses we propose the...

Environmental, Social and Governance Considerations in Pension Plans

Environmental, Social and Governance Considerations in Pension Plans

By Paul Williams & Elizabeth Harker Speaking at the United Nations Climate Change Conference ("COP26") in October 2021, the UK Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Thérèse Coffey, said that pension schemes can become a "superpower" in fighting climate change and propelling the world to net zero. But to what extent does the legal landscape within which pension schemes operate allow them to perform this role, and indeed to what extent should they be performing this role? Here in the...

Global Pension Finance Watch: First quarter 2022

By Nathan Pavlik & David Finn The sharp increase in discount rates drove positive first quarter pension index results for all regions. Asset returns were negative for all regions except Brazil for the quarter which partially offset the liability gains. Inflationary impact were most pronounced in the UK where plans provide annual pension increases based in inflationary indicators. The overall impact of these changes resulted in positive pension index returns for all markets during the first quarter. While it is always...

The Association between Mandated Environmental Liability Recognition and Voluntary ESG Disclosure Quality

By Daniel A. Bens, Cai Chen & Peter R. Joos We examine the association between mandated Asset Retirement Obligations (ARO), i.e., environmental clean-up costs of normal operations estimated on the balance sheet, and the quality of voluntary ESG disclosures. We hypothesize that when firms recognize larger AROs with higher accuracy that this effort will spillover into enhanced voluntary disclosure of a broad range of ESG outcomes. Empirical evidence supports this hypothesis. In a sample of environmentally sensitive industries, we find...

ESG and Private Market Assets: Pension and Insurance Investors Shifting the Trillions (2022 – 2026)

ESG and Private Market Assets: Pension and Insurance Investors Shifting the Trillions (2022 – 2026)

By M. Nicolas J. Firzli, Nick Sherry & Guan Seng Khoo The co-authors of the article, are amongst the original coiners of term such as “infrastructure as an asset class” and “pension superpowers.” They also predicted, at the onset of the Covid Crisis, that a “historic realignment on the asset allocation front is happening precisely at the moment when ESG is moving centre stage: even in once staunchly neoliberal jurisdictions like Texas, Alaska or Switzerland, the smart money is betting...

March 2022

Class of 2022

By abrdn Our second iteration of the Class of report series paints a picture of what the Class of 2022 have in store for their retirement – from how they plan to spend their time to how prepared they are forwhat is to come. We’ve also spoken to those who retired in 2021 to see how they’ve got on in their first year of retirement and if there’s anything they’d do differently. The Class of series surveys 2,000 UK adults who are...

How Do Private Equity Fees Vary Across Public Pensions?

How Do Private Equity Fees Vary Across Public Pensions?

By Juliane Begenau & Emil Siriwardane We study how investment fees vary within private-capital funds. Net-of-fee return clustering suggests that most funds have two tiers of fees, and we decompose differences across tiers into both management and performance-based fees. Managers of venture capital funds and those in high demand are less likely to use multiple fee schedules. Some investors consistently pay lower fees relative to others within their funds. Investor size, experience, and past performance explain some but not all...

Sustainable Investment & Asset Management: From Resistance to Retooling

Sustainable Investment & Asset Management: From Resistance to Retooling

By Virginia E. Harper Ho Globally, market demand is rising for investment products and practices that take “environmental, social, and governance” (ESG) factors into account, challenging asset managers and capital markets to adapt in new ways. This chapter outlines why sustainability issues are increasingly relevant to mainstream asset owners and asset managers. It then explores the evolving regulatory landscape for sustainable investment in the U.S., focusing on the degree to which it supports or facilitates ESG integration into investment management...

Global Pension Risk Survey 2021/22. UK survey findings. The DB pension risk management journey

By AON We have been carrying out the Global Pension Risk Survey every two years for over a decade and it gives the industry great insight into how the pensions landscape has developed. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, it created many challenges for sponsors, pension schemes and their members. We saw sponsors and trustees reassessing the risks that they faced. While the impact was not negative for all pension schemes, there was a large market crash which had a...