Dealing with the New Giants: Rethinking the Role of Pension Funds

Geneva Report on the World Economy 8: by Tito Boeri (Bocconi University and Fondazione Rodolfo Debenedetti), Lans Bovenberg (Netspar and Tilburg University), Benoît Coeuré (Ecole Polytechnique) and Andrew Roberts (Merrill Lynch).
Summary: Pension funds are becoming the largest institutional investors in global financial markets. They help individuals save for their old age and protect the value of their pensions. In so far as they improve risk sharing along time and across individuals, pension funds may also support innovation and growth in the economy. However, pension funds operate in an environment characterised by a number of serious market imperfections (poor financial education of investors and managers, informational asymmetries in the delegation of saving and portfolio management decisions, imperfect labour markets, and potential supply versus demand imbalances in financial markets).

Date de publication: 27.07.2006

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