The 2017 Spring Meetings coincided with the surprise calling of snap general elections in the UK and military tensions in the Yellow Sea. Our postwar social contract has to cope with unprecedented shocks: Britain's thorny withdrawal from the EU, worsening Migrant Crisis, rise in populist...

This second of a series of seven papers co-authored by M. Nicolas J. Firzli and David Weeks looks at the notions of private markets – PE, VC, private debt and infrastructure – and the "quest for yields" in a low interest rates environment, which where discussed at two recent global...

This paper co-authored by M. Nicolas J. Firzli and David Weeks looks at the notions of long-term asset allocation and the ‘quest for yields’ from the perspective of AUS, European and North American pension investors and board members (trustees), which where discussed at two recent global...

We evaluate the impact of SARS-CoV-1 infection rates on inbound cross-border mergers & acquisitions (M&As) in China. Using transaction level data on cross-border M&As from 2002 to 2005, we show that Chinese provinces that experienced high level of SARS-CoV-1 infection rates, also suffered a...

The rapid rise of private asset markets has been one of the most remarkable phenomena in the institutional investment space since the start of the Great Recession (2008 – 2014). This trend is contributing to a pro-found transformation of the financial ecosystem as a whole. This unprecedented...

Central and Eastern European (CEE) stock markets have gradually attracted international investors’ attention after 1990, and their integration into the European capital market will lead to increased maturity of these markets, accompanied by higher attractiveness to international investors. The...

Public pension funds are, by far, the world's preeminent asset owners, with more than $ 25 trillions in combined assets. The largest pension funds are found in the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, the Netherlands and the UK ("pension superpowers"). How they are managed, their funding...

French Abstract: Nicolas Firzli nous fait partager certains des travaux menés par le World Pensions Council (WPC) et résume ici une partie des interventions du G7 Pensions qui s'est tenu fin août dernier, en marge du Sommet du G7 de Biarritz. Il livre des pistes de réflexions précieuses...

The investment choices of large asset owners such as pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and endowments, are, to a large extent ‘guided’ and pre-determined by the systematic use of old- fashioned indices or benchmarks designed by a small set of Anglo- American ‘index providers’ –...