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Managing public investment funds: best practices and new questions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 October 2008

OLIVIA S. MITCHELL ,
JOHN PIGGOTT  and
CAGRI KUMRU
OLIVIA S. MITCHELL
Affiliation:
Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, 3620 Locust Walk, 3000 Steinberg Hall–Dietrich Hall, Philadelphia, PA, USA
JOHN PIGGOTT
Affiliation:
Australian Institute for Population Ageing Research, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia (e-mail: J. Piggot@unsw.edu.au)
CAGRI KUMRU
Affiliation:
Australian School for Business, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia
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Abstract

Large publicly held pools of assets are playing an increasingly prominent role in the global investment arena. We compare three distinct forms of such public funds, namely foreign exchange reserve funds, sovereign wealth funds, and public pension funds, to highlight their differences and similarities. We review previous studies on ways to better secure prudent and economically sound public fund management practices in these funds, as well as how to evaluate their governance and investment policies and how to better protect the assets from political interference. Drawing from the pension and corporate finance literature, we also link their management to governance practices and country-specific characteristics, and contrast those with empirical findings on linkages with corporate governance.

Type
Issues and Policy
Information
Journal of Pension Economics & Finance , Volume 7 , Issue 3 , November 2008 , pp. 321 - 356
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Cambridge University Press

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