Public Pension Fund Management: Best Practice and International Experience

Abstract

As Japan's policymakers strive to reform the Government Pension Investment Fund, this paper reviews the core principles and best practices of public pension fund management, with a particular focus on governance and investment philosophy, as distilled from the experience of some of the largest and most advanced institutional investors. It proceeds to compare and contrast three distinct models of institutional fund management: the Norway model, the Yale/Australia Future Fund model, and the Canada model. The paper concludes by making some preliminary recommendations for the Government Pension Investment Fund reform.