Pension funds' allocations to hedge funds: an empirical analysis of US and Canadian defined benefit plans

This article investigates the characteristics of US and Canadian pension funds that allocate assets to hedge funds. The typical pension fund that invests in hedge funds is a large sophisticated pension fund that diversifies its portfolio across numerous classes of investments, private equity in particular, uses a core-satellite organization and has access to low delegation costs for alternative assets. Moreover, we find that pension funds investing in hedge funds significantly obtained higher global returns.     

Measuring and explaining implicit risk sharing in defined benefit pension funds

This article investigates responses to changes in solvency by occupational pension funds using a unique panel data set containing the balance sheets of all registered pension funds in the Netherlands over a period of 13 years (1993–2005). A fixed discount rate for liabilities in the supervisory framework allows us to measure the response of pension funds to solvency shocks. We find that pension rights are expanded, by e.g. indexation, or limited, by for instance setting the pension premium over its actuarially fair price, in line with the funding ratio but that the pension funds’ response function exhibits two sharp and significant behavioural breaks, close to the minimum funding ratio of 105% and the target ratio of around 125%. We further find that large funds and grey funds are relatively generous to current participants.     

European integration, productivity growth and real convergence

This paper derives a stochastic endogenous growth model to investigate the impact of European Union (EU) integration on convergence and productivity growth. The theoretical model implies both temporary and permanent positive effects of the integration process. The empirical part of the analysis uses structural break tests and data envelopment analysis to examine the accession process of five recent members to the EU15. The results show (i) endogenously identified accession dates as structural breaks, (ii) improved rates of productivity growth after accession over and above the Union benchmark level, and (iii) increased pace of overall growth due to capital accumulation as a result of institutional features of the Union such as Structural and Cohesion Funds. These findings support the theoretical model, implying that economic integration is beneficial for member countries, especially from a long-run perspective, and Cohesion and Structural funds help the new members catch up with the core-EU members’ standard of living.     

中国省际人口迁移流场及其空间差异

社会经济的快速发展和区域发展不平衡的加剧引发了大规模的省际人口迁移。利用2005年1％人口抽样调查和2000年的10％人口普查数据,分析近10年来的中国省际人口迁移流场及其空间差异。研究发现,近10年来省际人口迁移规模逐步增加,以从四川、湖南、江西、河南和安徽等重要辐散区向东南沿海的长三角、珠三角和京津冀地区等沿海发达地区迁移为主,且有增强的趋势。长三角社会经济的快速发展使得区域迁入规模增加,迁入总量接近广东省,而广东省的迁入规模在大规模增加的同时,向周边省区迁出的人口规模也在大规模增加。     

Emigrants’ missing votes

What are the causal effects of emigration on election outcomes in the country of origin? Large emigration of high-skilled emigrants can lead to changes in the distribution of political preferences, which affect voting outcomes. Using administrative migration and voting data, we show that emigration from Poland following its accession to the European Union in 2004 caused an increase in vote shares for right-wing parties, while decreasing the vote share for left-wing parties due to emigrants’ missing left-leaning votes. To account for endogenous migration patterns, we construct an innovative instrument that measures the distance to the closest open EU border. Our results highlight that emigration enhances stayers’ trust in right-wing governments and increases stayers’ voting for parties with pro-European positions. Exploiting a change in voting rules over time allows to disentangle different mechanisms. These results have important implications for the design of voting policies.     

Migrant Networks: Empirical Implications for the Italian Bilateral Trade

A significant number of empirical studies, focusing on different countries, have found a positive link between migration and trade. This paper studies the relationship between emigration, immigration and trade using Italian data. The sample regards 51 foreign trading partners and spans from 1990 to 2005. The results suggest that networks of Italian emigrants in foreign countries boost bilateral trade. The effects of immigrants are weak on exports and negative on imports. Results do not change when cultural and institutional dissimilarities between countries are considered.     

Pension funds,corporate responsibility and sustainability

The paper introduces two approaches to identify corporate behaviours that should attract the attention of pension funds in the context of debates over sustainability, while remaining within a narrow interpretation of their fiduciary duty. The approaches are based on two simple models of how different societal spheres interact with one another and influence long-term economic performance. These models allow exploring the idea that corporations can influence trajectories of societal change—keeping in mind that pension funds care about these trajectories because they care about the long-term performance of the economies in which they invest. The model underlying the internalising investor approach assumes that corporations are the only actors in society. In this model, pension funds will maximise their expected ability to meet their liabilities if companies internalise negative externalities and spill-over effects in order to reduce the cost of market failures for the economy as a whole. The model underlying the civic investor approach comprises companies and various actors (the state, NGOs, corporate stakeholders) engaged in shaping the governance structure that mediates the interaction between the social, environmental and economic spheres. In this model, pension funds will want companies to facilitate effective responses to societal problems. These approaches allow us to identify a number of corporate behaviours that should be of concern to pension funds.     

THE POLITICS OF MAASTRICHT

The Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) treaty signed at Maastricht does not guarantee the recreation of German-style economic policies and outcomes at the European Community (EC) level. Membership was not limited to countries that mimic the German commitment to price stability. National representatives may outvote inflation-averse EC central bankers in monetary policy decisions. The Council of Ministers has the power to set exchange rate policy vis-à-vis third currencies. The treaty does not provide binding constraints against fiscal profligacy in member states. The German government agreed to this suboptimal outcome because in the wake of the demise of the Soviet Union and German unification it had broader political interests in maintaining the pace of European integration at Maastricht. The Bundesbank's policy of high interest rates in 1992, however, has effectively guaranteed a two-speed monetary union, in which the first group of members will be limited to a narrow deutschemark zone. Given the waning enthusiasm for integration across the EC, the German government has no incentive to alter this outcome.     

Temporary and Permanent Immigration under Unionization

This paper investigates permanent and temporary immigration and remittance under the coexistence of unionized and non‐unionized manufacturing firms in a two‐sector economy. The impacts of immigration and remittance on respectively wages, employment, the union–non‐union wage gap and national welfare are analyzed. It is found that both permanent immigration (economy‐wide) and temporary immigration in agriculture bring positive effects on most variables (except the competitive wage), but widens the wage gap and causes income redistribution in the host country. However, if temporary immigrants work in manufacturing only, then all wages and the union–non‐union wage gap fall. That is, workers become more equally paid but poorer. In addition, remittance and globalization cause negative effects on union workers and employers. It is perhaps such consequences and the income redistribution effect of immigration that cause the media to paint a negative image of immigration.     

Migration and regional convergence in the European Union

We offer an empirical, econometric analysis of the impact of migration on the EU27’s NUTS2 regions in the period 2000–2007. We find that migration had no significant impact on regional unemployment in the EU, but affected both GDP per capita and productivity. A 1 percentage point increase in immigration to immigration regions increased GDP per capita by about 0.02?% and productivity by about 0.03?% on impact and by 0.44?% for GDP per capita and 0.20?% for productivity in the long run. For emigration regions an increase in the emigration rate leads to similar reductions of GDP per capita and productivity both on impact and in the long run. Since immigration regions are often regions with above average GDP, while emigration regions in Europe practically all have below average GDP, migration does not seem to promote convergence.     

THE NON‐TRADED SECTOR,LOBBYING, AND THE CHOICE BETWEEN THE CUSTOMS UNION AND THE COMMON MARKET

This paper models immigration policy as the outcome of political competition between interest groups representing individuals employed in different sectors. In standard positive theory, restrictive immigration policy results from a low‐skilled median voter voting against predominantly low‐skilled immigration. In the present paper, in contrast, once trade policies are liberalized, restrictive immigration policy results from anti‐immigration lobbying by interest groups representing the non‐traded sectors. It is shown that this is in line with empirical regularities from recent episodes of restrictive immigration legislation in the European Union. It is further shown that if governments negotiate bilaterally over trade and migration policy regimes, the equilibrium regime depends (i) on the sequencing of the international negotiation process and (ii) on the set of available trade and migration policy regimes. In particular, the most comprehensive and most welfare‐beneficial type of liberalization may be rejected only because a less comprehensive type of liberalization is available.     

Disentangling the migration-trade nexus: the pro-trade effects of immigrants and emigrants in the presence of vertical and horizontal product differentiation

This paper presents an exploration of the migration-trade nexus taking the case of Italy by crossing the two dimensions of migration (immigration and emigration) and the two dimensions of intra-industry trade (vertical and horizontal). This empirical strategy proves useful in refining interpretation of econometric results. In general, we find that both immigration and emigration are positively and significantly related to intra-industry trade. However, the magnitude and the statistical significance of the impact of migration on trade vary, depending on the type of trade flows considered (vertical or horizontal), the direction of migration (immigration or emigration) and the partner countries considered (OECD or non-OECD). In particular, we find that immigrants from non-OECD countries have a positive and significant impact on both ‘variety trade’ and ‘quality trade’, while immigrants from OECD countries significantly affect ‘variety trade’ only. Emigrants to non-OECD countries have positive effect only on ‘variety trade’. These findings are largely consistent with predictions deriving from theoretical models of intra-industry trade and from the literature on migration-trade nexus.     

养老保险制度：历史、现实与未来

我国养老保险已实现从企业统揽到社会保险的制度转换。近年来,养老保险基金欠费严重,隐性债务问题显现。变现部分国有资产充实社会保险基金,加强基金管理成为完善我国养老保险制度的未来选择。     

Pension Fund Herding and the Influence of Management Style

In this article, we study the herding phenomenon in Spanish equity pension funds with European investment locations from 2002 to 2012, considering whether the development of different investment strategies by the managers results in herding. In addition, we analyze the performance-herding relationship, observing whether pension fund performance decreases or increases when pension funds herd. Using the herding measure of Lakonishok et al. [1992], we do not find strong imitation behavior, although herding in the market and book-to-market styles are higher. Those pension funds that do not herd or that follow distinctive strategies do not present significant differences in performance with respect to herding funds.     

Institutions and the route to reform of the European Union’s budget revenue, 1970–2017

Using process tracing, this paper charts the history of the changes in the EU’s revenue since 1970, including package deals and the unforeseen consequences of change, comparing the positions of the Council to those of the European Commission and European Parliament. Those revenue decisions allowed European integration to proceed though without a fully autonomous budget as Member States became more careful to calculate their net benefits or costs in relation to the budget. In December 2013, the European Union’s institutions established a High Level Group to recommend changes to the revenue base of the EU’s budget. This reported in January 2017, proposing to resolve the effect of sub-optimal revenue and budget decisions made by the European Union over many years, to reduce direct national contributions, to minimise the risk of unforeseen consequences, and to combine revenue flows with steering effects to discourage certain forms of economic behaviour in line with the wider policy agenda of the European Union.     

SURVEY OF COUNTRY PRACTICES IN COMPILING BALANCE-SHEET STATISTICS

From a survey of the 150 members of the United Nations it appears that only one country could at present provide the full range of balance-sheet statistics called for in the United Nations guidelines on this topic. Seven countries could compile balance sheets confined to conventional types of assets and liabilities–excluding assets like consumer durables and mineral deposits. A further 31 countries presently publish some statistics on certain balance sheet items, but as the data have generally not been collected with a view to constructing national balance sheets they tend to be deficient for such purposes both in coverage and valuation. In other countries only rather trivial kinds of balance-sheet data are available, such as certain banking statistics collected by the central monetary authority for purposes of bank regulation.
A review of sources and methods shows that for financial assets and liabilities extensive use is made of company accounts and enterprise surveys. The estate multiplier method is used in several countries for measuring household assets and net worth. As regards producers' fixed assets, countries with centrally-planned economies generally take direct surveys of assets, while in countries with market economies the perpetual inventory method is preferred.
It is noted that many of the purposes for which balance-sheet statistics are used can be adequately served without constructing a complete set of accounts. To date balance-sheet statistics have therefore tended to be developed in a piecemeal fashion with priority going to those parts of the accounts whose uses for economic analysis are most obvious. Chief among these are statistics on the financial assets and liabilities of corporate enterprises and statistics on the stock of producers' fixed assets. These two areas also predominate in countries' plans for the future development of balance-sheet statistics.     

Health spending in Italy: The impact of immigrants

The welfare impact of immigration is a highly debated issue especially for countries on the external borders of the European Union. This paper studies how immigrants affect public health expenditure across Italian regions during the period 2003–2016 using NUTS II level data. Identification strategy is based on shift–share instruments, which are made robust to pull factors that might attract immigrants in Italy and to internal migration of natives. We find that a 1 percentage point increase in immigrants over total resident population leads to a decrease in public health expenditure per capita by about 3.8% (i.e. around 69 euro per capita). Among possible channels, we find no support for any crowding out effect from public to private health services by natives due to increasing immigration or for any role played by different levels of efficiency across regional health systems. Our results are driven by immigrants' demographic structure: they are mostly males and younger workers that call for less health spending, according to a positive selection mechanism. Moreover, linguistic barriers contribute to limiting the immigrants' reliance on public healthcare, which is confirmed also by the use of the European Health Interview Survey microdata.     

外出务工对流出地家庭生计策略的影响——来自西部山区的证据

本文首先基于可持续生计框架,引入劳动力迁移的视角,之后改进农户模型以分析劳动力外出务工对流出地家庭生计策略的影响机理,并利用陕西秦岭北麓地区1074户的调查数据进行验证。结果发现:外地打工虽然有利于家庭的资本积累,但会阻碍流出地非农生计活动的参与和劳动力供给;本地打工在促进资本积累的同时,对参与林(经济)作物种植、养殖和自营等生计活动有显著的促进作用,但过多的劳动力外出务工仍然会减少本地其它活动的收入水平。     

International Bank Portfolios: Short‐ and Long‐Run Responses to Macroeconomic Conditions

International bank portfolios constitute a large component of international country portfolios. Yet, banks' response to international macroeconomic conditions remains largely unexplored. We use a novel dataset on banks' international portfolios to answer three questions. First, what are the long‐run determinants of banks' international portfolios? Second, how do banks' international portfolios adjust to short‐run macroeconomic developments? Third, does the speed of adjustment change with the degree of financial integration? We find that, in the long‐run, market size has a positive impact on foreign assets and liabilities. An increase in the interest differential between the home and the foreign economy lowers foreign assets and increases foreign liabilities. Foreign trade has a positive impact on international bank portfolios, which is independent from the effect of other macroeconomic variables. Short‐run dynamics show heterogeneity across countries, but these dynamics can partly be explained with gravity‐type variables.     

The exchange rate mechanism's role in the european monetary system

The European Community was established with the intent of reaching full economic, monetary, and political union among its member countries. The three elements of the European Monetary System—the Exchange Rate Mechanism, the European Currency Unit, and the European Monetary Fund—were designed to work together to achieve monetary integration among the member states. German reunification, as a result of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, played an important role in the failure of the Exchange Rate Mechanism. Many steps will need to be taken in order for the European community to obtain full economic and monetary union.