According to theory, institutional investors face both risk management and risk shifting incentives. This paper assesses the relevance of these conflicting incentives for Dutch pension funds and insurance firms over the period 1995-2009. Using a unique and extended dataset, we observe a...

Developed countries apply different security mechanisms in regulation to protect defined pension benefits: solvency requirements, a pension guarantee fund, and sponsor support. We test the performance of these mechanisms in terms of the protection offered to pension benefits in relation to the...

We analyze the relation between investment returns and performance fees for 218 Dutch occupational pension funds with an average total of 985 billion euro in assets under management from 2012 to 2015. Our dataset is free from self-reporting biases and includes total return, excess return and...

Using a comprehensive dataset on issuances and holdings of contingent convertible debt instruments (CoCos) issued by European banks we investigate who invests in European CoCos. The results indicate that most European CoCos are not directly held by euro area investors. Foreign investors outside...

With the adoption of the Paris Agreement in December 2015, better understanding of portfolio carbon dioxide (CO2) exposures has become increasingly important for investors, regulators and society at large. In this paper we measure the portfolio carbon footprints (CFPs) of pension funds' stock...

We study how pension fund (out)performance is influenced by a) a pension fund's activity, i.e., how much the pension fund deviates in its stock allocation from the typical pension fund behavior, and b) whether the pension fund exploits short- or long-term mispricing opportunities (measured by...

Strategic investment decisions in pension funds are made by trustees. In making these decisions, trustees contract independent advisors such as asset managers and actuaries. Can these external advisors transfer their investment beliefs to the pension funds they contract with? We use proprietary...

Adequate funding of occupational pension plans is key to benefit security. Across countries different methods of securing funding exist: solvency requirements, a pension guarantee fund, and sponsor support. The key goal of this paper is to investigate the welfare implications to the beneficiary...

Using a unique dataset of 225 Dutch occupational pension funds with a total of 928 billion euro of assets under management, we provide a comprehensive analysis of the relation between investment costs and pension fund size. Our dataset is free from self-reporting biases and decomposes investment...

A well established believe in the pension industry is that collective pension funds should take more stock market risk (compared to individual retirement accounts) since risk may be shared with future generations. We extend the OLG model of Gollier (2008) by adding labor income risk in the...