The idea that superior knowledge is required to drive financial outperformance runs counter to some of the most pervasive theoretical frameworks used by investors today. The Efficient Market Hypothesis and the Capital Asset Pricing Model, for example, posit that capital markets are efficient and...

Mutual funds following factor investing strategies based on equity asset pricing anomalies, such as the small cap, value, and momentum effects, earn significantly higher alphas than traditional actively managed mutual funds. A buy-and-hold strategy for a random factor fund yields 110 basis...

In this study, we investigate if investors that have adopted investment strategies based on asset pricing anomalies documented in the academic literature (i.e., the low-beta, small cap, value, momentum, short-term reversal, and long-term reversal factors) consistently earn positive abnormal...

As representatives of nation-states in global financial markets, sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) share a common form and many functions. Arguably their form and functions owe as much to a shared (global) moment of institutional formation as they owe their form and functions to the hegemony of...

Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) are the subject of intense debate. While these funds are hard to define in precise terms, all agree they are government-sponsored pools of financial assets. With roughly $3 trillion under management today and forecasts that suggest this number could approach $10...

Managing (or at least slowing) the decline of private defined benefit (DB) pensions has been a top priority for US policymakers. Any market-related developments or regulatory changes that alter the provision or sustainability of private DB pensions in other countries are thus relevant to policy...

As representatives of nation-states in global financial markets, sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) share a common form and many functions. Arguably their form and functions owe as much to a shared (global) moment of institutional formation as they owe their form and functions to the hegemony of...

The worldwide rise of sovereign wealth funds is emblematic of the ongoing transformation of nation-state economic prospects. Sovereign Wealth Funds maps the global footprints of these financial institutions, examining their governance and investment management, and issues of domestic and...

One of the major trends over the past decade among Long-Term Investors (LTIs), such as pension funds and government funds, has been to move towards a more direct method of investing. The financial crisis of 2008-09 accelerated this ‘disintermediation', in particular within long-term private...

The increasing complexity and de-localization of finance has allowed for an obfuscation of fees and costs that asset managers charge to asset owners. This obfuscation has, in turn, led to a distortion in the underlying incentives that asset owners set for the capitalist system. In this chapter,...