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Sovereign pension and social security reserve funds: A portfolio analysis

Author

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  • Dreassi, Alberto
  • Miani, Stefano
  • Paltrinieri, Andrea

Abstract

Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) have been increasing in numbers and in the global reach of their investment activities. At the same time, they seem to experience the adverse consequences of the financial crisis differently than other financial intermediaries. This paper assesses whether and how a retirement-financing purpose has affected their investment strategies since the global financial crisis, as opposed to the strategies of other public pension entities that do not operate as SWFs. We construct a sample of 12 sovereign pension reserve funds (SPRFs) and social security reserve funds (SSRFs) and analyze the effects of size, operational model, country development, the fund's experience, and quality of disclosures on strategic asset allocation for the period 2007–2014. We also investigate the relevance of “home bias.” Our results show that SPRFs invest more aggressively than SSRFs, but are less exposed to domestic investments. We do not find major shifts in asset allocation induced by the financial crisis, except for a recent decrease of home-country exposures.

Suggested Citation

  • Dreassi, Alberto & Miani, Stefano & Paltrinieri, Andrea, 2017. "Sovereign pension and social security reserve funds: A portfolio analysis," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 43-53.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:glofin:v:34:y:2017:i:c:p:43-53
    DOI: 10.1016/j.gfj.2017.03.003
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    2. Bahoo, Salman & Alon, Ilan & Paltrinieri, Andrea, 2020. "Sovereign wealth funds: Past, present and future," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    3. Snorre Lindset & Knut Anton Mork, 2019. "Risk Taking and Fiscal Smoothing with Sovereign Wealth Funds in Advanced Economies," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 7(1), pages 1-24, January.
    4. Knut Anton Mork & Haakon Andreas Trønnes & Vegard Skonseng Bjerketvedt, 2022. "Capital Preservation and Current Spending with Sovereign Wealth Funds and Endowment Funds: A simulation Study," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-24, August.
    5. Knut Anton Mork & Vegard Skonseng Bjerketvedt, 2021. "Soft habits," Working Paper Series 18921, Department of Economics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
    6. Knut Anton Mork & Haakon Andreas Trønnes & Vegard Skonseng Bjerketvedt, "undated". "Capital preservation and current spending with Sovereign Wealth Funds and Endowment Funds: A simulation study," Working Paper Series 19222, Department of Economics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
    7. Knut Anton Mork & Fabian Andsem Harang & Haakon Andreas Tr{o}nnes & Vegard Skonseng Bjerketvedt, 2022. "Dynamic spending and portfolio decisions with a soft social norm," Papers 2212.10053, arXiv.org.
    8. Alvaro Cuervo-Cazurra & Anna Grosman & Geoffrey T. Wood, 2023. "Cross-country variations in sovereign wealth funds’ transparency," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 6(3), pages 306-329, September.

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