We estimate the effects of peer benchmarking by institutional investors on asset prices. To identify trades purely due to peer benchmarking as separate from those based on fundamentals or private information, we exploit a natural experiment involving a change in a government-imposed...

Japan, with its declining birthrate and aging population, must inevitably reduce the role of public pensions and seek a more prominent role for private pension plans. This report presents the recent developments in the reform of the defined contribution (DC) pension system in Japan. With...

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....

This paper analyses business preferences towards the development of private pension funds. Existing studies about business involvement in welfare state reform equate capital with employers and focus on the socio-economic determinants of their preferences. In contrast, this paper also analyses...

European governments are increasingly retreating from public pension provision and promoting the expansion of private pension funds. Analysts of comparative social policy have traditionally considered that the politics of pension privatisation is driven by politicians' and socio-economic actors'...

This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the annual and of the long-term performance of personal pension funds relative to their Primary Prospectus Benchmarks (PPBs) and T-bills. The study covers 9,659 personal pension funds from across all 30 ABI investment sectors that operated in the...

We document that defined benefit pension plans with significant holdings in private equity (PE) earn substantially greater returns than plans with small holdings in both the 1990s and the 2000s. A one standard deviation increase in PE holdings is associated with 4% greater returns per year. Up...

This study examines the relationship between fund size and performance for two major superannuation industry sectors in Australia: retail and not-for-profit, using a unique but confidential database. Results suggest that members benefit from being invested in larger superannuation funds for...