Seminal papers on the size of the firm emphasise the benefits of in-sourcing over outsourcing services from the market. This provides a rationale for the development of large firms, especially in circumstances of market risk and uncertainty as to the price and quantity of available services....

Investment returns are produced by combining financial assets with human capital, the decision-making protocols of investment institutions, and the electronic infrastructure which supports the flow of information about investment opportunities. At the centre of the production process stand...

Spurred on by the recent financial crises, a growing number of institutional investors are working to bypass traditional financial intermediaries, agents and centers through the development of in-house teams of investment professionals. As such, the institutional investment community, which is...

Fiduciary duty is the golden rule ‘regulating’ the relationship between trustees and beneficiaries. In principle, it regulates behaviour by pre-empting those actions that would harm the interests of beneficiaries while promoting duties of care consistent with the interests of those that...

For pension funds and other institutional investors, governance refers to the resources and processes used in decision-taking. Recognising that risk and uncertainty are the life-blood of investment strategy, in this paper we develop a resource-based framework to better understand the structure...

It is well appreciated that demographic trends threaten the integrity of continental European systems of social security. For France, these trends imply a long term financial crisis as well as a crisis of confidence in national economic and social institutions. The payment of social security...

The global financial crisis and its aftermath put into sharp relief the structure and performance of the global financial services industry. Questions have been raised as to what intermediaries separately and together add to the production of investment returns and social welfare (in general)....

This paper explores how shareholder engagement on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues is informally exercised by a large global institutional investor with locally embedded, geographically remote firms. By studying a UK asset manager's shareholder engagement strategies on ESG...

The global financial crisis and its aftermath put into sharp relief the structure and performance of the global financial services industry. Questions have been raised as to what intermediaries individually and collectively add to the production of investment returns and social welfare in...

Defined contribution (DC) or money purchase pension saving schemes place the onus on participants to make decisions on asset allocation, the choice of investment vehicles, and the extent to which changes in individual circumstances and macroeconomic conditions should affect investment strategy....