Contrary to concerns expressed by many observers, we found no compelling evidence of a negative impact from share buybacks on long-term value creation for investors overall. We did find, however, that buybacks can impact long-term investment returns differently for active and index investors. Over the periods we observed, Companies where index investors were the largest shareholders included a much wider range of buyback impacts, good and bad, than companies where the largest shareholders...

Recently reported global pension data for 2016 shows only modest change in funding status from 2015 for the majority of companies. The measure of underfunded pension liabilities to revenues has improved in Japan, but deteriorated somewhat in each of the other developed market regions (North America, Western Europe, and Asia-Pacific ex Japan.) The highest average ratio and largest deterioration are both to be found in North America. The full report details variations in this ratio by country...

There has been much written about a brewing crisis for both private and public pensions funds due to the gap between pension obligations and the resources set aside to fund them.1 Large levels of underfunding are not just a concern for employees, but for investors as well, as the need for companies to replenish pension funds could negatively affect earnings.2 1 See for example "UK’s Pension Funding Hole Hits 900bn after Brexit", Financial Times, June 26, 2016. 2 See for example "Alcoa’s...