Asset allocation is a classic topic in the theory of finance, and a crucial issue for investment policy. Noted for its significance in driving pension fund performance, it is also an issue that individual investors consider when designing their investment portfolios. In theory, Markowitz and...

This paper deals with pension fund investment in urban infrastructure projects. It is suggested that the potential returns (and risks) with such projects are significantly greater than fixed income products though they have long gestation periods like gilt-edge securities. Our argument begins...

Concern about the competence of individual decision-makers has prompted governments and pension plan sponsors to take advantage of the insights gleaned from the behavioural revolution. Auto-enrolment, target-date and related investment strategies may effectively counter behavioural biases such...

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...

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...

Relations between China and the USA began with the best of intentions: the USA would sponsor the normalization of China's status in the international community through trade in exchange for China's commitment to peaceful co-existence with the west. As an emerging economy, China has relied upon...

The design and governance of pension funds is an important topic of academic research and public policy and has significant implications for the welfare of participants. Here we focus upon the design and governance of defined contribution (DC) pension plans which have become the de facto model...

In an era of population aging and increasing fiscal pressures on nation-states, pension reserve funds have been mooted as effective investment vehicles for realizing future liabilities and achieving some balance between generations. Nonetheless, concerns have been raised that partisan political...

Saving for retirement is fraught with risk and uncertainty. For those not privileged by participation in a defined benefit pension plan, the issue is made complex and problematic by the failure of inherited decision rules: the options available are variable in terms of their costs and possible...

Recent research suggests that regions can be characterised according to their (more or less) financial literacy. One implication is that there may be regional ecologies of finance nested within national institutions and global markets. This paper begins by situating behaviour in time and space,...