Document Type
Working Paper
Date of this Version
7-2021
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 Code
G02, G20, G23, G28
Working Paper Number
WP2021-12
Copyright/Permission Statement
All findings, interpretations, and conclusions of this paper represent the views of the authors and not those of the Wharton School or the Pension Research Council. © 2021 Pension Research Council of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. All rights reserved.
Acknowledgements
The project leading to this application has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 894345 (in LEVEL EEI Project). We also gratefully acknowledge research support from Netspar.
Date Posted: 21 July 2021
Comments
The published version of this working paper can be found in the 2023 publication: Pension Funds and Sustainable Investment: Challenges and Opportunities.