The Role of Pension Funds and Other Investors in Securitized Debt Markets

Despite renewed interest in the role of business in shaping the welfare state, we still know little about how factions of capital adapt their strategies and translate these into political infighting and coalition building. Based on a detailed process tracing analysis of the political battle over German pension funds, this paper shows that cleavages within business do not necessarily run along the lines of finance vs. non-finance. While ‘financial challengers’ (banks and investment companies) advocated financialized pension funds, ‘financial incumbents’ (insurers) defended a conservative understanding of old age provision. Tremendous political momentum towards financialization notwithstanding, challengers remained largely unsuccessful. Incumbents elicited support from the wider business community by adjusting their strategic goals and engaging in discursive reformulations to effectively fight pension financialization from within capital. To accommodate such competition politics and coalition building, the paper argues for a more dynamic understanding of business strategizing and highlights the importance of discursive political strategies. It shows that some capitalists may act as antagonists of elements of financialization and problematizes the actual mechanisms of coalition building through which business plurality affects political outcomes.

Download Full-text

The impact of adaptability on the competitiveness of non-State pension funds

Finance and Credit ◽

10.24891/fc.27.11.2606 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 27 (11) ◽

pp. 2606-2636

Author(s):

Ekaterina S. YAROVAYA

Keyword(s):

Pension Fund ◽

Pension Funds ◽

High Variability ◽

Current Time ◽

Factors Affecting ◽

Existing Problems ◽

State Pension ◽

The Impact ◽

State Pension Funds

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.

Download Full-text

Politics, Direct Investment, Public Debt Markets, and the Shadow Economy

The Oxford Handbook of Public Choice, Volume 2 ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190469771.013.34 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 683-696

Author(s):

Friedrich Schneider

Keyword(s):

Informal Sector ◽

Political Institutions ◽

Public Debt ◽

Sovereign Debt ◽

Direct Investment ◽

Shadow Economy ◽

Debt Crisis ◽

Policy Implications ◽

Debt Markets

The chapter first considers the role of politics on the size of the shadow economy and how it is affected by political institutions. Second, it investigates the role of the informal sector on direct investment and public debt markets in the “official” economy. The informal sector has significant adverse effects on credit ratings, lending costs, and investment decisions. This has policy implications, especially in the context of the ongoing sovereign debt crisis, since it suggests that, if politics succeed in reducing the informal sector of financially challenged countries, this is likely to reduce credit risk concerns, cutting down lending costs, and stimulating investment.

Download Full-text

On Beyond CalPERS: Survey Evidence on the Developing Role of Public Pension Funds in Corporate Governance

SSRN Electronic Journal ◽

10.2139/ssrn.1010330 ◽

2007 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Stephen J. Choi ◽

Jill E. Fisch

Keyword(s):

Corporate Governance ◽

Pension Funds ◽

Public Pension

Download Full-text

Courts, Sovereign Immunity, and Credible Commitment in Sovereign Debt Markets

The Oxford Handbook of Institutions of International Economic Governance and Market Regulation ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190900571.013.36 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

W. Mark C. Weidemaier

Keyword(s):

Sovereign Debt ◽

Credible Commitment ◽

Debt Contracts ◽

Sovereign Immunity ◽

Conventional View ◽

Legal Enforcement ◽

Legal Remedies ◽

Debt Markets ◽

Mandatory Rules

This chapter revisits the role of legal enforcement in sovereign debt markets. The conventional view is that the law of sovereign immunity denies creditors effective legal remedies. To many observers, weak legal enforcement is problematic, for effective legal remedies would facilitate credible repayment commitments. Though substantially correct, this perspective is also flawed. The assumption that creditors lack effective remedies implicitly treats sovereign immunity as a set of mandatory rules. In fact, sovereign lenders can and do bargain for greater enforcement rights. When courts enforce these bargains, legal remedies gain potency. Yet potent remedies need not improve the functioning of debt markets. Courts can create effective remedies against sovereign debtors only by imposing significant costs on third parties. Many loan debt contracts are drafted so as to maximize these externalities. The important question—given short shrift thus far—is whether the credibility-enhancing virtues of legal enforcement justify the costs.

Download Full-text

Infrastructure Investment and the Emerging Role of Institutional Investors: The Case of Pension Funds and Sovereign Wealth Funds

Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies ◽

10.5901/ajis.2014.v3n1p43 ◽

2014 ◽

Author(s):

Joseph B. Oyedele

Keyword(s):

Institutional Investors ◽

Pension Funds ◽

Infrastructure Investment ◽

Sovereign Wealth Funds

Download Full-text

If Boilerplate Could Talk: The Work of Standard Terms in Sovereign Bond Contracts

Law & Social Inquiry ◽

10.1017/lsi.2018.14 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 44 (03) ◽

pp. 617-646 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Anna Gelpern ◽

Mitu Gulati ◽

Jeromin Zettelmeyer

Keyword(s):

Private Information ◽

Sovereign Debt ◽

Standard Form ◽

Sovereign Bond ◽

Standard Contract ◽

Debt Markets ◽

Financial Contract ◽

Standard Terms

Standard contract terms are “sticky”: they rarely change, even if change appears to be in the parties’ interest. Multiple theories to explain stickiness do not reach consensus on its causes. We investigate the role of stickiness in sovereign bond contracts, where it would be especially costly and therefore puzzling. In our interviews with more than a 100 officials responsible for the bond contracts of twenty-eight countries, they linked reluctance to change non-financial contract terms and the imperative of following a “market standard” for such terms. When a term could be described as standard for the government’s debt stock or borrower cohort, its content often came across as secondary. Sovereign debt managers seemed willing to forgo some of the benefits of contract terms for dealing with contingencies and revealing private information to avoid negative signals and maintain the liquidity of primary and secondary debt markets. Interviews with investors suggested a similar focus on standard form and a limited engagement with contract substance.

Download Full-text