Abstract
We explore whether beneficiaries of pension plans should have a voice in the fund’s sustainable investments. We hypothesize that the answer to this question depends on a fund’s legal and societal contexts, benchmarking pressure, and fund-specific factors such as the fund’s size and the board’s composition. We uncover heterogeneity in the degree to which beneficiaries are involved in decision-making. Some pension funds have started a dialogue with their participants, mainly using survey instruments. We provide an example of a fund that gave its participants a real vote, while avoiding the pitfalls that come with hypothetical surveys on individual preferences.
Keywords
pension participant survey, social preferences, socially responsible investments.;
JEL codes
- G20: General
- G23: Non-bank Financial Institutions • Financial Instruments • Institutional Investors
- G28: Government Policy and Regulation
Reference
Rob Bauer (Maastricht University), “Eliciting Pension Beneficiaries’ Sustainability Preferences: Why and How?”, 2nd Sustainable Finance Center Conference, TSE, Toulouse, 2021.
See also
Published in
2nd Sustainable Finance Center Conference, TSE, Toulouse, 2021