March 2026

Universal Owner and Impact of Its Engagement Program: An Analysis of Engagement Records of Japan’s GPIF

By Masahiro Shibata & Kazunori Suzuki This study examines the impact of Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) engagement program, leveraging a proprietary dataset of 26,792 engagements across 21 externally managed funds from fiscal years 2017 to 2022. As one of the largest universal owners globally, GPIF plays a pivotal role in influencing corporate behavior through structured engagements aimed at improving corporate governance, environmental sustainability, and financial performance. Despite growing global interest in engagement-driven stewardship, empirical evidence on its effectiveness...

Non-contributory Pension Programs and Intra-household Inequality

By José L. Casco Non-contributory pension schemes are increasingly prevalent as countries seek to combat poverty, yet their role in shaping inequality remains underexplored. This paper studies how such programs alter intra-household inequality using data from Mexican household income and expenditure surveys. The analysis first examines a local pension program in Mexico City, embedding an age-based quasi-experimental design to identify beneficiaries within a structural model of extended households. Results show that the program shifted resources from men to women and...

UK. Pensions and savings hammered as threat of ‘full-scale economic war’ sends shares tumbling

More than £50billion was wiped off the value of the London stock market today – taking losses since the start of the war on Iran to £225billion. On a brutal day for savers with money tied up in shares through their pensions, ISAs and other investments, the FTSE 100 index tumbled more than 200 points or 2 per cent in early trading. The wider FTSE All-share – which includes smaller companies on the London stock market as well as the 100 blue chips...

Risks, returns and realism: Mapping the future of pension investment

By Nicolas Firzli and Nick Sherry  Former Australian pensions minister Nick Sherry and World Pensions Forum director M Nicolas J Firzli explain their new model for visualising the future of asset allocation as interest in private markets and productive finance increases. We are living in the Age of Geo-Economics – defined by the second Trump presidency, the accelerating Sino-American technological rivalry, and the weaponisation of trade, finance and central banking – shaping the Fifth Industrial Revolution – bringing us artificial intelligence, advanced...

Guerra contra Irán: escenarios para los inversores

Por Arun Sai La guerra en Irán y el riesgo de que pueda derivar en un conflicto regional de mayor alcance han agitado los mercados financieros mundiales. Los precios del petróleo y del gas en Europa se han disparado, mientras que los mercados de renta variable han experimentado fuertes caídas. Lo que más se teme es que el mundo pueda estar a punto de experimentar una subida de los precios de la energía tan abrupta como la que se produjo tras...

Información sobre pensiones de personas exservidoras públicas

Por Gobierno de México & Secretaría Anticorrupción y Buen Gobierno La Secretaría Anticorrupción y Buen Gobierno realizó un análisis de la información relativa a personas pensionadas en diversas instituciones públicas, entre ellas, Luz y Fuerza del Centro en Liquidación, Petróleos Mexicanos, Comisión Federal de Electricidad, Nacional Financiera, Banco Nacional de Obras y Servicios Públicos, Banco Nacional de Comercio Exterior y Banco Nacional de Crédito Rural. En el marco de dicho análisis se identificaron pensiones exorbitantes que superan el sueldo de...

2025 Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance Impact Report

By Climate Policy Initiative The 2025 Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance (the Lab) Impact Report highlights how innovative financial solutions are helping mobilize private investment for climate action in emerging markets. From 2014 to 2025, the Lab incubated 87 climate finance instruments designed to address barriers to investment in sectors such as renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, nature-based solutions, and climate resilience. Together, these solutions have mobilized USD 4.4 billion in climate investment, with USD 1.83 billion from private investors. The report...

Pension and Entrepreneurship: Evidence from Sweden’s Transition from Defined Benefit to Defined Contribution

By Ai Jun Hou, Di Cui, Mingfa Ding, Yikai Han & Xiaoyang Li Sweden's 1999 pension reform-which replaced a defined-benefit (DB) regime with a notional defined-contribution (DC) scheme-changed incentives in ways that affect employees' career choice over the life cycle. We use Swedish administrative data and a difference-indifferences approach to study the impact of this reform on entrepreneurship. We find that entrepreneurial entry increases more after the reform among cohorts with greater exposure to the new DC pension system. The...

Challenges of the Power of the New Longevity: Age Discrimination in the Workplace, and More, in Argentina

By Virginia Marturet Life expectancy has significantly increased, reaching an average of 77 years in Argentina. The current challenge is to enhance the quality of those years. Age discrimination is the third leading cause of discrimination worldwide and is prevalent in Argentina, particularly in workplaces, society, and daily life. Our current challenge is to make those years a life with more quality and fullness. What is the power of all that we have gained and how do we take advantage...

Why Social Security Is Essential to Measuring Wealth Inequality

By Knowledge at Wharton Staff In this Q&A, professor Sylvain Catherine discusses why including Social Security fundamentally changes how we measure wealth inequality. His paper “Social Security and Trends in Wealth Inequality” was co-authored by Max Miller and Natasha Sarin and recently won the Dimensional Fund Advisors First Prize from the American Finance Association. The paper was previously awarded the Marshall Blume Prize in Financial Research from Wharton’s Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research, given annually to the best...