Assessing the governance and transparency of national public pension funds

Abstract

Full or partial funding of traditional public pension schemes becomes crucial for the inter-temporal sustainability of the systems. A good governance structure for national public pension funds (NPPFs) may work as a deterrent for misuse of the assets of the fund, which are particularly exposed to abuse by governments. Our study provides the first global comprehensive survey on governance, transparency, assets, and investments of 83 NPPFs located in 68 countries. We develop and calculate a Transparency and Governance Index that measures compliance of NPPFs with best practices. Our results indicate a wide dispersion in governance and transparency performance of these funds, and provide the basic elements that governments should take into account when reforming NPPFs' governance structures.