Private pension fund flow, performance and cost relationship under frequent regulatory change

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yaman Omer Erzurumlu ◽  
Idris Ucardag

Purpose This paper aims to investigate private pension fund investor sentiment against fund performance and cost in an environment of frequent regulatory changes. The analyses are conducted in a low return, high-cost private pension fund market environment, which makes it easier to observe the relationship between investor sentiment to return and cost. Design/methodology/approach This paper conducts fixed effect, random effect and random effect within between effect panel data analyses of all Turkish private pension funds from 2011 to 2019. This paper conducts the analyses using aggregate data and subsets based on fund characteristics and pre-post regulation periods. Findings When regulations provide compensation and improve market efficiency in a pension fund market, investor focus shifted from performance to cost. Investors allocated assets with respect to return realization when adequately compensated for risk or had favorable cost contract clauses. Consequently, investors in pension funds with lower expected returns and no special fee reduction clauses tended to adopt the strategy of cost minimization. Research limitations/implications The overlap of regulatory change periods could complicate the ability to distinguish the impact of any one specific change. The findings therefore cannot be generalized to differently structured markets. Practical implications Regulatory changes could lead to a switch of investor objectives. When regulatory changes compensate investors and increase market efficiency, investors objective could switch from performance to cost. Originality/value This study investigates investor sentiment in a relatively young private pension fund market, in which the relevant regulatory body ambitiously implements frequent changes in regulation. The selected market is unique in the sense that it has negative real returns and high costs, which make investor focus to return and cost more readily apparent.

Risks ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 6
Author(s):  
Łukasz Dopierała ◽  
Magdalena Mosionek-Schweda

The aim of this paper is to assess the impact of reforms introduced in the operation of Polish open pension funds on management style, risk exposure and related investment performance. The article analyzes the impact of the reformed regulations on the herd behavior of fund managers. In particular, we examined whether the elimination of the internal benchmark for fund evaluation impacts the elimination or reduction of herd behavior. We proposed a multi-factor market model to evaluate the performance of funds investing in various types of instruments. Moreover, we used panel estimation to directly take into account the impact of the internal benchmark on herd behavior. Our results indicate that highly regulated funds may slightly outperform passive benchmarks and their unregulated competitors. In the case of Polish open pension funds, limiting investments in Treasury debt instruments clearly resulted in increased risk and volatility of returns. However, it also raised competition between funds and decreased the herd behavior. Additionally, the withdrawal of the mechanism evaluating funds based on the internal benchmark was also important in reducing herd behavior.


2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 629-642 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sundas Sohail ◽  
Farhat Rasul ◽  
Ummara Fatima

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore how governance mechanisms (internal and external) enhance the performance of the return on asset (ROA), return on equity (ROE), earning per share (EPS) and dividend payout ratios (DP) of the banks of Pakistan. The study incorporates not only the internal factors of governance (board size, out-ratio, annual general meeting, managerial ownership, institutional ownership, block holder stock ownership and financial transparency) but also the external factors (legal infrastructure and protection of minority shareholders, and the market for corporate control). Design/methodology/approach The sample size of the study consists of 30 banks (public, private and specialized) listed at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSE) for the period 2008-2014. The panel data techniques (fixed or random effect model) have been used for the empirical analysis after verification by Hausman (1978) test. Findings The results revealed that not only do the internal mechanisms of governance enhance the performance of the banking sector of Pakistan but external governance also plays a substantial role in enriching the performance. The findings conclude that for a good governance structure, both internal and external mechanisms are equally important, to accelerate the performance of the banking sector. Research limitations/implications Internal and external mechanisms of corporate governance can also be checked by adding some more variables (ownership i.e. foreign, female and family as internal and auditor as external), but they are not added in this work due to data unavailability. Practical implications The study contributes to the literature and could be useful for the policy makers who need to force banks to mandate codes of governance through which they can create an efficient board structure and augment the performance. The investments from different forms of ownership can be accelerated if they follow the codes properly. Social implications The study facilitates the bankers in incorporating sound codes of corporate governance to enhance the performance of the banks. Originality/value This work is unique as no one has explored the impact of external mechanism of governance on the performance of the banking sector of Pakistan.


2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (11) ◽  
pp. 2606-2636
Author(s):  
Ekaterina S. YAROVAYA

Subject. This article deals with the analysis of competitiveness, which is an important component of the strategic management of a non-State pension fund. Objectives. The article aims to study the existing approaches to the analysis of competitiveness, determine the role of the indicator of adaptability of competitiveness of non-State pension funds in conditions of high variability of the external environment, and formulate recommendations for drawing up criteria for the enterprise competitiveness taking into account the specifics of the activities of the funds. Methods. For the study, I used analysis, and the systems, and structural and functional approaches. Results. The article defines and classifies the factors affecting the competitiveness of non-State pension funds in modern market conditions. It substantiates the influence of the indicator of adaptability on the competitiveness of non-State pension funds. The article also proposes an approach to ranking this indicator, which can be applied regardless of the chosen method for assessing the competitiveness of non-State pension funds. Conclusions. The article concludes that the testing of the assessment of the non-State pension fund competitiveness using the author-proposed adaptability indicator helps determine the level of non-State pension fund competitiveness at the current time, track the changes, and identify the existing problems, the causes of their occurrence, and thereby ensure the conditions under which the non-State pension fund has the opportunity to promptly respond and adapt to external changes thus ensuring its stability in the market.


2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
MONICA PAIELLA ◽  
ANDREA TISENO

AbstractThis paper exploits a recent reform of private pension schemes in Italy to identify the impact on household saving of tax-favored retirement saving plans. The reform was part of the restructuring of the social security system and was aimed at rising private long-term saving by making pension funds more attractive and convenient. We control for unobserved saver heterogeneity and a central focus is on substitution across saving instruments. We find that the pension fund legislation had a strong effect on the allocation of saving and triggered substantial substitution of non-tax-favored non-retirement wealth for tax-favored pension funds. In contrast, we find that it had little, if any effect on household saving flows. Our findings also suggest that the provision of ‘closed’ pension funds might significantly affect the decision to invest in private retirement schemes.


Author(s):  
Yahya Bayazidi ◽  
Enayatollah Homaie Rad ◽  
Mehdi Mojahedian ◽  
Mehdi Toroski ◽  
Azita Nabizadeh ◽  
...  

Purpose The main aim of this study is to investigate the effects of marketing and costs and research and development (R&D) investments on profitability of pharmaceutical companies of Iran. Design/methodology/approach In this study, pharmaceutical companies that have been accepted in Tehran Stock Exchange until March 19, 2013 were investigated. Random-effect panel data estimator was used for this purpose. Findings The findings indicate that variables such as company size, capital-to-total asset ratio and debt-to-asset ratio have an effect on profitability. But, company life, advertising cost and R&D investment are ineffective on profitability. Originality/value Legal issues like not having patent law and pricing mechanism are reasons for the ineffective relationship between R&D and marketing costs and its effect on profitability of the Iran pharmaceutical industry.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shoukat Ali ◽  
Ramiz Ur Rehman ◽  
Bushra Sarwar ◽  
Ayesha Shoukat ◽  
Muhammad Farooq

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the impact of board financial expertise on the shareholding of foreign institutional investors in an emerging equity market of China and to explore whether ownership concentration moderates the relationship between board financial expertise and foreign institutional investment. Design/methodology/approach To test the hypothesized relationships, this study uses panel data regression models, i.e. static (fixed effect and random effect) and dynamic (two-step generalized methods of moments) models. Further, to control the possible endogeniety issue, this study uses two instrumental variables, namely, board size and industry average financial expertise of board to proxy board financial expertise. This study covers a period from 2006 to 2015 for 169 listed Chinese firms. Findings The results revealed that foreign institutional investors positively perceived board financial expertise and holds more shareholdings with the increasing level of financial experts at boards of directors. Moreover, ownership concentration positively moderated this relationship. It means that in highly concentrated firms, the board financial expertise conveys a stronger signal to foreign institutional investors that firms can manage financial resources rationally by controlling negative effects of ownership concentration. Further, the robustness model also confirmed the relationship between board financial expertise and foreign institutional shareholdings. Originality/value To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate board-level financial expertise as a determinant of foreign institutional ownership. Further, no previous study has used ownership concentration as a contextual variable on the relationship between board financial expertise and foreign institutional investment.


2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (11) ◽  
pp. 1345-1362
Author(s):  
Folorunsho M. Ajide

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of financial inclusion (FI) on control of corruption in selected African countries.Design/methodology/approachThe study employs secondary data spanning over a period of 2005–2016. These data are sourced from IMF's International Financial Statistics, World Bank Development Indicators, Global Financial Development Database, Transparency International and International Country Risk Guide. The author uses Sarma (2008) approach to construct the FI index for 13 countries in Africa. The author applies random effect, robust least square and instrumental variable (IV) estimations to examine the impact of FI on control of corruption in Africa.FindingsThe author finds that financial inclusion improves the control of corruption. The author tests for possible FI threshold to avoid the case of extreme FI in Africa. The results show that there is a threshold level if reached, FI would have negative impacts in the control of corruption. This may likely happen mainly due to weak institutions in Africa. The results are robust to alternative proxy for control of corruption and various alternative estimation techniques.Practical implicationsThe finding indicates that FI can serve as part of toolkits for reducing corruption in Africa.Originality/valueThis study stresses the important role of FI in the economic system. It is the first paper that empirically suggests the role of FI in controlling corruption in Africa.


2019 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl-Christian Trönnberg ◽  
Sven Hemlin

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of pension fund managers investment thinking when confronted with challenging investment decisions. The study focuses on the theoretical question of how dual thinking processes in experts’ investment decision-making emerge. This question has attracted interest in economic psychology but has not yet been answered. Here, it is explored in the context of pension funds.Design/methodology/approachThe sample included 22 pension fund managers. The authors explored their decision-making by applying the critical incident interview technique, which entailed collecting investment decisions that fund managers retrieved from recent memory (Flanagan, 1954). Questions concerned the investment situation, the decision-making process and the challenges and uncertainties the fund managers faced.FindingsMany of the 61 critical incidents examined concerned challenging (mostly stock) investments based on extensive analysis (e.g. reliance on external analysts for advice; analysis of massive amounts of hard company and stock market information; scrutiny of company reports and personal meetings with CEOs). However, fund managers to a high degree based their decisions on soft information judgments such as experience and qualitative judgements of teams. The authors found heuristics, intuitive thinking, biases (sunk cost effects) and social influences in investment decision-making.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample is small and not randomly selected.Practical implicationsThe authors suggest anti-bias training and better acquaintance with human forecasting limitations for pension fund managers.Originality/valuePension fund managers’ investment thinking has not previously been investigated. The authors show the types of investment situations in which analytical and intuitive thinking and biases occur.


Author(s):  
Emna Mnif ◽  
Bassem Salhi ◽  
Anis Jarboui

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present the Islamic stock and Sukuk market efficiency and focus on the presence of investor herding behaviour (HB) captured by Hurst exponent estimation. Design/methodology/approach The Hurst exponent was estimated with various methods. The authors studied the evolving efficiency of the “Dow Jones” indices from 1 January 2010 to 30 December 2016 using a rolling sample of the Hurst exponent. In addition, they used a time-varying parameter method based on the Hurst of delayed returns. After that, the robust Hurst method was considered. In the next step, the efficiency of the different activity types of Islamic bonds was studied using an efficiency index. Finally, the Hurst exponent estimates were applied to assess the presence of HB. Findings The results show that, firstly, there’s a strong correlation between the “DJIM” and “DJSI” prices and returns. Secondly, by using robust Hurst estimate, it is observed that the “DJIM” is the most efficient market. The Hurst exponent estimation results show that HB is more intensive in the Islamic stock market. These results indicate also the inexistence of this behaviour in the studied Sukuk market. Research limitations/implications Sukuk as Islamic financial assets is recent. Their relative time series are not long enough to apply the long memory approach. Furthermore, this work can be extended to study other Islamic financial markets. Practical implications Herding affects risk-return characteristics of assets and has an impact on asset pricing models. Practitioners are interested in understanding herding and its timing as it might create profitable trading opportunities. Social implications This work analyses the impact of Islamic principles on the financial markets and their ability to understand some behavioural biases. Originality/value This study contributes to the literature by identifying the efficiency and the presence of HB with Hurst exponent estimation in Islamic markets.


2015 ◽  
Vol 41 (9) ◽  
pp. 958-973 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Huerta ◽  
Dave O. Jackson ◽  
Thanh Ngo

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to reexamine the impact of investor sentiment on real estate investment trust (REIT) returns using direct, survey-based measures of sentiment to categorize sentiment from institutional and individual investors. Design/methodology/approach – The authors provide a framework in which sentiment is classified into individual and institutional investor sentiment under the assumption that investors, depending on sophistication, react differently to the same set of information and will influence REIT prices differently. The authors employ a methodology that uses panel regression analyses and divides the sample of REITs into size and performance portfolios. Findings – The regression results suggest that institutional investor sentiment is positively and significantly related to REIT returns contemporaneously for multiple sample specifications. These results are consistent with high levels of institutional ownership in REITs. Results also suggest that individual investor sentiment only influences small capitalization and low-α portfolios. Originality/value – The findings provide more evidence on the influence of investor sentiment on security pricing even for highly regulated sectors such as the REIT industry. Investors may use changes in sentiment as signals for portfolio rebalancing and capital allocations.


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