Pensions and Capital Stewardship Project
To subscribe to the Pension and Capital Stewardship Project Publications:
[Click Here]
Occasional Papers, No. 6
Going on Automatic: The Right Path Toward Retirement Income Security For All?
By Larry Beeferman and Matthew B. Becker
Households in the United States face serious challenges to enjoying income security in retirement. This paper critically appraises two policy initiatives ostensibly geared to helping to meet those challenges. One already embodied in law - the federal Pension Protection Act of 2006 (the "Act") - and the other in the form of Obama administration and legislative proposals, use automatic enrollment in employment-based defined contribution (DC) plans and Individual Retirement Accounts, respectively, along with default investments as means toward that end.
The paper describes the rationales offered at the time for the Act's
provisions, the manner in which the enacted policies have been
implemented, and how effective they have been and are likely to be. It
assesses the strength of the evidence available at the time to support
advocates' contentions that automatic enrollment would be a success. It
then considers the post-enactment literature on the outcomes of
automatic enrollment. It follows with a review of the literature on
persistence (over time) of contributions to defined contribution (DC)
plans and how realistic or justifiable were expectations for the success
of the Act's provisions. The paper then characterizes the IRA proposals
and examines studies of the persistence of contributions to IRAs. Next
it evaluates the workings and outcomes of New Zealand's KiwiSaver
scheme, the one already in operation which most closely resembles what
proponents urge should be done with respect to IRAs. Finally, drawing on
the findings and observations in the preceding sections, the paper
offers a broader perspective on the directions policy should take if
there is to be a serious prospect of ensuring retirement income security
for all households in this country.
Occasional Papers, No. 5
By Aaron Bernstein and Christopher Greenwald
Near majorities of large corporations have labor and human rights (LHR) policies covering their global supply chains, although far fewer have established follow-up monitoring and enforcement mechanisms. LHR supply-chain policies are also close to the norm among European companies, with the United States and Asia lagging behind. These findings are contained in the first study to benchmark LHR policies among the 2,500 companies found on the major stock market indices. The study was done by Pensions Project Senior Fellow Aaron Bernstein and Christopher Greenwald, Director of Data Content at the Swiss firm ASSET4, using ASSET4 data.
Occasional Papers, No. 4
This paper explores how pension funds and other investors can obtain data on the long-
term sustainability risks posed by the labor and human rights (LHR) activities of global
corporations, with a specific focus on supply chains.
It should be read as a companion piece to Bernstein's “Incorporating Labor and Human
Rights Risk into Investment Decisions"
(Occasional Paper, No. 2)
Occasional Papers, No. 3
Pension Fund Investment
in Infrastructure:
A Resource Paper
By Larry W. Beeferman
Pension funds are increasingly giving thought to investment in
infrastructure in an effort to achieve substantial and stable returns
that are a match for funds' long-term liabilities. This paper describes
risk, reward, and other financial considerations that bear on that
thinking. The paper also discusses concerns about the job and labor
implications of such investments and pension fund and other response to
those concerns.
Occasional Papers, No. 2
Incorporating Labor and Human Rights Risk Into Investment Decisions
By Aaron Bernstein
Mainstream investors for the first time are beginning to assess labor and human rights factors as a way of increasing returns and lowering risk as part of a broader movement in the investment world to include corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) behavior into portfolio and lending decisions. However, the paper also describes why investment analysis of labor and human rights poses some of the most difficult challenges in the emerging ESG field.
Can VEBAs alleviate retiree health care problems?
By Aaron Bernstein
[Download Full Paper]
Other Pension Papers
I N F R A S T R U C T U R E: Defining Matters
December 2012
This paper is resource for pension funds in two ways. One is to help them gain a more useful understanding of what infrastructure “is” or might be believed to “be.” The other is to suggest how that understanding relates to ways of thinking about infrastructure and how those ways, in turn, are linked to choices about infrastructure investments for their portfolios. The analysis and findings are based in part on a survey of U.S. public sector pension funds which have made such investments.
Corporations Launch First-Of-A-Kind Testing Of
New Labor & Human Rights
Supply Chain Performance Indicators
Fair Labor Association (FLA),
Harvard Law School’s Pension and Capital Stewardship Project, and
Investor Responsibility Research Center (IRRC) Institute
January 2012
Nine companies this month launched a process to test newly-developed Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to assess reputational risks and operational shortcomings associated with labor and human rights factors in corporate supply chains. Collectively, these companies source goods from 1,755 factories that employ around 1.8 million workers in 62 countries. Once tested, finalized, and implemented, these standardized KPIs could allow interested parties to assess companies’ progress toward reducing labor and human rights risks.
Supply-Chain Labour and Human Rights
Sponsored by LUCRF Super, this study was commissioned by
The Australian Council of Superannuation Investors
and prepared by The Pensions and Capital Stewardship Project,
Labor and Worklife Program, Harvard Law School
December 2011
Prepared at the request of the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (ACSI), this report benchmarks the supply-chain labor and human rights policies of the S&P/ASX 200 (ASX 200) against 2,500 of the largest global companies building on the work of the Project’s previous publication “Benchmarking Corporate Policies on Labor and Human Rights in Global Supply Chains,” (Occasional Paper No. 5) On the whole, the ASX 200 companies lag their peers in other listed markets, with a mere 17% issuing a labor and human rights policy covering their supply chain, versus 35% in the global sample. This trend carries across when analyzing company procedures to implement policies. There is some exception to this pattern for occupational health and safety policies of ASX 200 companies, which were notably strong, which may reflect the impact of strict health and safety legislation in Australia. The largest Australian companies (by market capitalization) also managed to measure up to their global peers on a number of indicators. The majority of ASX 200 firms however paled in comparison to the performance of the global sample.
Capital Stewardship in the United States: Worker Voice and the Union Role in the Management of Pension Fund Assets
Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research
February 2011
vol. 17 no. 1, pp. 43-57
This article describes US unions’ efforts at capital stewardship, that is, the investment and management of the assets accumulated in pension and other retirement plans (frequently termed ‘workers’ or ‘labour’s capital’) — on behalf of plan participants and in the interest of workers more generally. It focuses particularly on the opportunities for direct worker voice in the governance and management of those assets through workers serving as trustees of the plans. The article explores the challenges these trustees face in navigating that role in addition to their possibly conflicting role as a union member or official. It details unions’ visions for capital stewardship and their efforts to integrate trustees’ activities within the broader range of union activities. Finally, it describes ways in which unions have collaborated in support of their trustees and to develop a cross-union capital stewardship agenda.
Origins of the Financial Markets Meltdown, the Need for Financial Reform, and the Dodd-Frank Bill Response
By Larry Beeferman
Commissioned for the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems,
January 2011
This paper reviews: (1) what typically are seen as important near- or short-term causes linked to the financial crisis, (2) the kinds of individual and institutional behaviors that many believe contributed to these causes, (3) the most important among the provisions of recently enacted financial markets reform legislation – the Dodd-Frank Act – ostensibly calculated to change those behaviors, and (4) some critical perspective on whether the provisions are suited to the task.
US Pension Funds’ Labour-Friendly Investments
By Tessa Hebb and Larry Beeferman
Chapter 4 inThe "Social" in Social Security: Market, State and Associations in Retirement Provision,
Mark Hyde and John Dixon eds.,
Edwin Mellen Press, Lampeter, UK., 2010
This article explores the evolution of labor friendly US investments by pension funds in the period since the downturn of the financial markets in 2001. It argues that both pension funds and investment vehicles that bring intentional targeting to their investments are becoming increasingly sophisticated financial players. Labor friendly investments that focus on risk adjusted rates of return as the driver for investment are increasingly able to point to strong track records that encourage a wide range of pension fund investors to engage with these vehicles and practices.
Private Equity and American Labor: Multiple, Pragmatic Responses Mirroring Labor’s Strengths and Weaknesses
Journal of Industrial Relations,
Vol. 51, No. 4, pp. 545-558 (2009)
This article briefly describes the recent growth of private equity, details some of the challenges such growth has posed for American labor, and outlines ways in which labor has chosen to respond. In so doing it suggests that the diverse, complicated, and practical choices labor has made to date have been shaped by the particular strengths and weaknesses of its position in American society. More particularly, these choices place the emphasis on (1) legislative change, relating mainly to tax rather than regulatory policy (labor-related or otherwise); (2) capital strategies, by which unions and pension funds engage companies in connection with corporate governance and investments that might be made in or withheld from them; and (3) high-profile campaigns relating to the reputation of private equity firms and the companies in their portfolio.
Pension Fund Investment in Infrastructure: A Resource Paper
By Larry W. Beeferman 
Published in:
Pensions Occasional Papers,
Labor and Worklife Program
Pension funds are increasingly giving thought to investment in
infrastructure in an effort to achieve substantial and stable returns
that are a match for funds' long-term liabilities. This paper describes
risk, reward, and other financial considerations that bear on that
thinking. The paper also discusses concerns about the job and labor
implications of such investments and pension fund and other response to
those concerns.
Capital Matters Newsletter
•Accounting for Pension Fund Risk and Reward
• A Code of Conduct for Pension Trustees
• CEO Pay as a Proxy for Good Corporate Governance
• Defined Benefit and Defined Contribution Investment Returns Compared
• Labor, Human Rights and Investment Risk
[Capital Matters | July 2008]
• ...What to Do
• 401(k)s Fall Short of Funding an Adequate Returement
• Can VEBAs Alleviate Retiree Health Care Woes
• SEffective Labor Representation on Pension Boards
[Capital Matters | April 2008]
• What trustees can learn from San Diego
• Putting labor rights into investment decisions
• Trustee Perspective
• Sharing retirement-funding risk: The Dutch Solution
[Capital Matters | January 2008]
What can be done to improve America's retirement system? Is private equity really all it's cracked up to be? Find out in the premier edition of Capital Matters , the Pension and Capital Stewardship Project's newsletter.
[Capital Matters | October 2007]
