Eliciting Pension Beneficiaries’ Sustainability Preferences: Why and How?

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Wharton Pension Research Council Working Papers
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pension participant survey
social preferences
socially responsible investments
Economics
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Bauer, Rob M.M.J.
Smeets, Paul M.A.
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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.

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2021-07-01
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The published version of this working paper can be found in the 2023 publication: Pension Funds and Sustainable Investment: Challenges and Opportunities (https://pensionresearchcouncil.wharton.upenn.edu/pension-funds-and-sustainable-investment-challenges-and-opportunities/).
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