"Cult of equity": actuaries and the transformation of pension fund investing, 1948–1960

Yally Avrahampour

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: This article examines the mid-twentieth-century transformation of U.K. pension fund investment policy known as the “cult of equity.” It focuses on the influence exercised by the Association of Superannuation and Pension Funds over actuarial and corporate governance standards, through actuaries who were members of its council. This intervention led to increasingly permissive actuarial valuations that reduced contributions for sponsors of pension funds investing in equities. Increased demand for equities required pension funds to adopt a more permissive approach to corporate governance than insurance companies and investment trusts, and contributed to declining standards of corporate governance.

JEL-codes: E6 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-his, nep-ias and nep-mac
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in Business History Review, 2015, 89(02), pp. 281-304. ISSN: 0007-6805

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:63871

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