Board Diversity and Self-Regulation in Dutch Pension Funds

Self-regulation on diversity of Dutch pension fund boards was introduced in 2010. Our data reveals that gender diversity has only marginally improved since then. We examined the determinants of gender and age diversity of pension fund boards using data from 1,525 pension fund board members of the 200 largest pension funds in the Netherlands. Our results indicate that larger boards are more likely to satisfy diversity criteria. We also find evidence consistent with tokenism as seven boards have one member who satisfies both diversity criteria simultaneously. Hence, we conclude that this self-regulation has not yet had the desired effect