IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finlet/v88y2026ics1544612325023827.html

Population aging and pension fund risk-taking

Author

Listed:
  • Liang, Zhuohui
  • Du, Lin

Abstract

China is experiencing a rapid aging population. This article aims to explore its implications for the risk-taking of pension funds. Utilizing a sample over a two-decade period, this article offers strong evidence that population aging is positively related to pension fund risk-taking. This impact is larger for areas with lower economic levels and lower birth rates. Additional studies reveal that transfer payment is a core factor mediating the main relation. The finding holds across a series of econometric tests. Overall, by highlighting the association between population aging and pension fund risk-taking, this article advances the current research.

Suggested Citation

  • Liang, Zhuohui & Du, Lin, 2026. "Population aging and pension fund risk-taking," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:88:y:2026:i:c:s1544612325023827
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2025.109133
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612325023827
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.frl.2025.109133?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wang, Hua & Chen, Yaorui, 2024. "The impact of population aging on capital structure decisions and capital market efficiency: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 95(PB).
    2. Alexander Carlo & Piet Eichholtz & Nils Kok & Ruud Wijnands, 2023. "Pension fund investments in infrastructure," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 24(5), pages 329-345, September.
    3. Dong, Ming & Mao, Shunjie & Li, Shan, 2023. "Supplier's technology upgrading investment strategy considering product life cycle," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 263(C).
    4. Zvi Bodie, 2003. "Thoughts on the Future: Life-Cycle Investing in Theory and Practice," Financial Analysts Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 59(1), pages 24-29, January.
    5. Aleksandar Andonov & Joshua D Rauh, 2022. "The Return Expectations of Public Pension Funds," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 35(8), pages 3777-3822.
    6. Guo, Jing & Yu, Jiaqi & Tian, Ziqing, 2025. "Financial technology, population aging, and corporate innovation," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    7. Nicole Maestas & Kathleen J. Mullen & David Powell, 2023. "The Effect of Population Aging on Economic Growth, the Labor Force, and Productivity," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 15(2), pages 306-332, April.
    8. Roel M. W. J. Beetsma & A. Lans Bovenberg, 2009. "Pensions and Intergenerational Risk‐sharing in General Equilibrium," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 76(302), pages 364-386, April.
    9. Liu, Sujiao & Zhu, Mengcheng & Ling, Wenhao, 2023. "Research on the impact of population aging and endowment insurance on household financial asset allocation- Evidence on CFPS data," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    10. Alexander Dyck & Paulo Manoel & Adair Morse, 2022. "Outraged by Compensation: Implications for Public Pension Performance," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 35(6), pages 2928-2980.
    11. Fong, Joelle H. & Koh, Benedict S.K. & Mitchell, Olivia S. & Rohwedder, Susann, 2021. "Financial literacy and financial decision-making at older ages," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    12. Gallego-Losada, Rocío & Montero-Navarro, Antonio & Rodríguez-Sánchez, José-Luis & González-Torres, Thais, 2022. "Retirement planning and financial literacy, at the crossroads. A bibliometric analysis," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 44(C).
    13. Ashok Thomas & Luca Spataro, 2016. "The Effects Of Pension Funds On Markets Performance: A Review," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 1-33, February.
    14. Yingzhu Yang & Rong Zheng & Lexiang Zhao, 2021. "Population Aging, Health Investment and Economic Growth: Based on a Cross-Country Panel Data Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-16, February.
    15. Liu, Zhixiao & Zhang, Xue, 2025. "Commercial pension insurance and risky financial asset allocation: Evidence from elderly Chinese families," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zuo, Jingjing & Han, Lu & Wang, Wei, 2025. "Who is compressing the “dividends” of employees? Research on the impact of population aging on employee treatment," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    2. Chen, Yaorui & Wang, Hua, 2025. "Firm perceptions of population aging and cross-regional investment decisions: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 85(PA).
    3. Vieira, Kelmara Mendes & Rosenblum, Tamara Otilia Amaral & Matheis, Taiane Keila, 2022. "And tomorrow, how will it be? Developing a Financial Preparation for Retirement Scale (FPRS)," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(C).
    4. Yifan Liang & Nur Syazwani Mazlan & Azali Bin Mohamed & Nor Yasmin Binti Mhd Bani & Bufan Liang, 2023. "Regional impact of aging population on economic development in China: Evidence from panel threshold regression (PTR)," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(3), pages 1-21, March.
    5. Thaveesha Jayawardhana & Ruwan Jayathilaka & Sachini Anuththara & Thamasha Nimnadi & Ridhmi Karadanaarachchi & Kethaka Galappaththi, 2024. "Exploring the Dynamics of the Elderly Population and Economic Growth: A Comparative Analysis Across Continents," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 173(3), pages 543-568, July.
    6. Xue, Wenjun & He, Zhongzhi & Hu, Yu, 2021. "The stabilizing effects of pension funds vs. mutual funds on country-specific market risk," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    7. Jing, Peng & Zhao, Shuchen & Wang, Minglu, 2025. "From savings to investments: How retirement consumption expectations shape household risky financial asset allocation," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    8. Joseph Sedila Malepe, 2023. "Government interventions in the financial literacy of the law-enforcers: A case study of Emalahleni’s South African Police Services (SAPS)," International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478), Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 12(10), pages 217-227, December.
    9. Li, Tingting & Lu, Hongwei & Li, Jinkai & Chen, Jueying & Hong, Yu & Liu, Heguang, 2025. "Population ageing and clean energy transition: Evidence from rural China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 335(C).
    10. Guy Lacroix & Pierre-Carl Michaud, 2024. "Tax Incentives and Older Workers: Evidence from Canada," CIRANO Working Papers 2024s-06, CIRANO.
    11. Wang, Pengcheng & Yang, Xuelin, 2024. "Social trust and household financial decision-making: An empirical study based on the usage of household financial technology," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    12. Yi-Chun Ko & Shinsuke Uchida & Akira Hibiki, 2024. "Substitution of Human and Physical Capitals in Farm Adaptation to Extreme Temperatures: Evidence from Corn Yields in US," TUPD Discussion Papers 49, Graduate School of Economics and Management, Tohoku University.
    13. Fares Bounajm & Jean-Philippe Cayen & Michael Francis & Christopher Hajzler & Kristina Hess & Guillaume Poulin-Bellisle & Peter Selcuk, 2019. "Évaluation de la croissance de la production potentielle mondiale : avril 2019," Staff Analytical Notes 2019-13fr, Bank of Canada.
    14. Fernández-Villaverde, Jesús & Ventura, Gustavo & Yao, Wen, 2025. "The wealth of working nations," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    15. Sun, Zhongyu & Li, Jun, 2025. "The impact of economic policy uncertainty on household portfolios effectiveness: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    16. Fanglin LI & Michael APPIAH & Regina Naa Amua DODOO, 2020. "The Effects Of Technology And Labor On Growth In Emerging Countries," Management Research and Practice, Research Centre in Public Administration and Public Services, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 12(2), pages 39-47, June.
    17. Fange Meng & Xin Wen, 2024. "Quality of education, ageing and labor productivity," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 19(12), pages 1-16, December.
    18. Gordon B. Dahl & Matthew Knepper, 2023. "Age Discrimination across the Business Cycle," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 15(4), pages 75-112, November.
    19. Munisa Djumanova, 2025. "The impact of aging populations in Central Asia: economic opportunity or challenge?," Eurasian Economic Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 15(4), pages 1045-1068, December.
    20. Nobanee, Haitham & Ellili, Nejla Ould Daoud, 2023. "What do we know about meme stocks? A bibliometric and systematic review, current streams, developments, and directions for future research," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 589-602.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:88:y:2026:i:c:s1544612325023827. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/frl .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.