Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/186075 
Year of Publication: 
2017
Citation: 
[Journal:] Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics [ISSN:] 2235-6282 [Volume:] 153 [Issue:] 3 [Publisher:] Springer [Place:] Heidelberg [Year:] 2017 [Pages:] 293-339
Publisher: 
Springer, Heidelberg
Abstract: 
This study investigates the relationship between governance, investment performance and asset allocation of pension funds in Switzerland. Our sample includes survey data from 139 Swiss occupational pension plans for which we develop a governance metric comprising attributes of organisational design, management incentives, target setting, investment strategy, investment processes, risk management, monitoring, and transparency. We find empirical evidence that pension fund governance is positively related to excess returns, benchmark outperformance and Sharpe ratios. Pension funds in the top governance quartile outperform those in the bottom quartile by approximately 1% in terms of average excess returns and benchmark deviation. Furthermore, our study results indicate that asset allocation decisions are not related to governance, but rather to institutional factors.
Subjects: 
pension fund governance
investment performance
Swiss occupational pension plans
JEL: 
G11
G19
G23
J32
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Article

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.