The unique regulation of U.S. public pension funds links their liability discount rate to the expected return on assets, which gives them incentives to invest more in risky assets in order to report a better funding status. Comparing public and private pension funds in the United States, Canada,...

We analyze the three components of active management (asset allocation, market timing and security selection) in the net performance of U.S. pension funds and relate these to fund size and the liquidity of the investments. On average, the funds in our sample have an annual net alpha of 89 basis...

In two survey experiments (n=1,669 and n=3,186), we address the question whether people put their pension savings on the table to promote sustainability. First, pension fund members get a real vote on the fund's engagement strategy. A majority of members (67.9%) votes for increased and...