IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envira/v41y2009i4p859-878.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Geography of Pension Liabilities and Fund Governance in the United States

Author

Listed:
  • Ashby H B Monk

    (Oxford University Centre for the Environment, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QY, England)

Abstract

If finance is the engine driving economic and geographic change, then pensions are its primary vehicle. On the one hand, pension-plan assets, which approached US$18 trillion in 2005 for OECD countries, are having global impacts on financial markets. On the other hand, pension-plan liabilities, larger than the assets in nominal terms, are also having dramatic impacts on plan sponsors. If assets are not properly managed, pension liabilities can threaten the financial solvency of plan sponsors. Consequently, owing to the enormous and growing financial and political importance of pension plans, I contend that the procedures governing these institutions are of increasing importance for economic geographers. In this paper the effectiveness of the current governance system is tested through a widely subscribed ‘expert survey’. Then, the relationship between pension-fund governance and economic geography is demonstrated through case study. I conclude that the current governance model remains inadequate. Moreover, poor pension-fund governance, in addition to having an economic cost, is shown to have tangible geographic impacts.

Suggested Citation

  • Ashby H B Monk, 2009. "The Geography of Pension Liabilities and Fund Governance in the United States," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 41(4), pages 859-878, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:41:y:2009:i:4:p:859-878
    DOI: 10.1068/a40284
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/a40284
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1068/a40284?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Daniel Dorn & Gur Huberman, 2005. "Talk and Action: What Individual Investors Say and What They Do," Review of Finance, Springer, vol. 9(4), pages 437-481, December.
    2. Michael Useem & Olivia S. Mitchell, "undated". "Holders of the Purse Strings: Governance and Performance of Public Retirement Systems," Pension Research Council Working Papers 2000-3, Wharton School Pension Research Council, University of Pennsylvania.
    3. Clark, Gordon, 2000. "Pension Fund Capitalism," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199240487, Decembrie.
    4. Morag I. Torrance, 2007. "The Power of Governance in Financial Relationships: Governing Tensions in Exotic Infrastructure Territory," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(4), pages 671-695, December.
    5. Clark, Gordon L. & Caerlewy-Smith, Emiko & Marshall, John C., 2006. "Pension fund trustee competence: decision making in problems relevant to investment practice," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 5(1), pages 91-110, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. John A. Dove & Courtney A. Collins & Daniel J. Smith, 2018. "The impact of public pension board of trustee composition on state bond ratings," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 51-73, February.
    2. Lisa A. Hagerman & Tessa Hebb & Anna Steiger, 2008. "The role of community partners in urban investments," Public and Community Affairs Discussion Papers 2008-02, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    3. Gordon L Clark & Ashby H B Monk, 2014. "The Geography of Investment Management Contracts: The UK, Europe, and the Global Financial Services Industry," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 46(3), pages 531-549, March.
    4. Mitchell, O.S. & Piggott, J., 2016. "Workplace-Linked Pensions for an Aging Demographic," Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, in: Piggott, John & Woodland, Alan (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 865-904, Elsevier.
    5. Arno Riedl & Paul Smeets, 2017. "Why Do Investors Hold Socially Responsible Mutual Funds?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(6), pages 2505-2550, December.
    6. Dominique Diouf & Tessa Hebb & El Hadji Touré, 2016. "Exploring Factors that Influence Social Retail Investors’ Decisions: Evidence from Desjardins Fund," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 134(1), pages 45-67, March.
    7. Edika Quispe-Torreblanca & David Hume & John Gathergood & George Loewenstein & Neil Stewart, 2023. "At the Top of the Mind: Peak Prices and the Disposition Effect," Discussion Papers 2023-09, The Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics, School of Economics, University of Nottingham.
    8. Benjamin Braun, 2016. "From performativity to political economy: index investing, ETFs and asset manager capitalism," New Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(3), pages 257-273, May.
    9. Kate Gasparro & Ashby Monk, 2020. "Demystifying “localness†of infrastructure assets: Crowdfunders as local intermediaries for global investors," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(5), pages 878-897, August.
    10. John Henneberry & Fotis Mouzakis, 2014. "Familiarity and the Determination of Yields for Regional Office Property Investments in the UK," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(3), pages 530-546, March.
    11. Luigi Guiso & Tullio Jappelli, 2008. "Financial Literacy and Portfolio Diversification," Economics Working Papers ECO2008/31, European University Institute.
    12. Ann M. Carlos & Erin Fletcher & Larry Neal, 2015. "Share portfolios in the early years of financial capitalism: London, 1690–1730," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 68(2), pages 574-599, May.
    13. Taylor R Gray, 2011. "Channels of Convergence: Investor Engagement and Interlocked Directorates," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 43(9), pages 2202-2216, September.
    14. D’Hondt, Catherine & De Winne, Rudy & Merli, Maxime, 2021. "Do retail investors bite off more than they can chew? A close look at their return objectives," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 879-902.
    15. Ewald Engelen, 2003. "The Logic of Funding European Pension Restructuring and the Dangers of Financialisation," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 35(8), pages 1357-1372, August.
    16. Rajiv Sharma & Eric Knight, 2016. "The Role of Information Density in Infrastructure Investment," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(4), pages 520-534, December.
    17. Yaling Li & Ronghua Luo & Kailing Shen, 2024. "Information Acquisition and Individual Investors’ Trading Behavior," ANU Working Papers in Economics and Econometrics 2023-698, Australian National University, College of Business and Economics, School of Economics.
    18. Gordon L. Clark, 2016. "The Components of Talent: Company Size and Financial Centres in the European Investment Management Industry," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(1), pages 168-181, January.
    19. John Henneberry & Claire Roberts, 2008. "Calculated Inequality? Portfolio Benchmarking and Regional Office Property Investment in the UK," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 45(5-6), pages 1217-1241, May.
    20. Nosic, Alen & Weber, Martin, 2007. "Determinants of Risk Taking Behavior: The role of Risk Attitudes, Risk Perceptions and Beliefs," Sonderforschungsbereich 504 Publications 07-56, Sonderforschungsbereich 504, Universität Mannheim;Sonderforschungsbereich 504, University of Mannheim.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:41:y:2009:i:4:p:859-878. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.