IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/dnb/dnbwpp/839.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Competition among Dutch pension funds: is there any?

Author

Listed:
  • Jaap A. Bikker
  • Michiel van Leuvensteijn
  • Jeroen Meringa

Abstract

This paper adds to the literature by analysing for the first time the functioning of the Dutch pension funds market from a competition or efficiency perspective. Of course, competition is severely limited on this highly regulated market. The analyses focus on a key property of well-functioning markets: the reward of efficiency. The conclusion can be drawn that in the market for pension funds efficiency is indeed rewarded, up to a certain level. New regulations on cost transparency and on the quality of pension boards, and the ongoing consolidation among pension funds may be explanations for this development over time. At the same time, the level at which efficiency is rewarded is very low compared to other financial sectors such as the life insurance and banking sector.

Suggested Citation

  • Jaap A. Bikker & Michiel van Leuvensteijn & Jeroen Meringa, 2025. "Competition among Dutch pension funds: is there any?," Working Papers 839, DNB.
    • Handle: RePEc:dnb:dnbwpp:839
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.dnb.nl/media/o41f0uyc/working_paper_no-839.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bresnahan, Timothy F., 1982. "The oligopoly solution concept is identified," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 10(1-2), pages 87-92.
    2. Michiel van Leuvensteijn & Jacob Bikker & Adrian van Rixtel & Christoffer Kok Sørensen, 2011. "A new approach to measuring competition in the loan markets of the euro area," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(23), pages 3155-3167.
    3. Hay, Donald A & Liu, Guy S, 1997. "The Efficiency of Firms: What Difference Does Competition Make?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 107(442), pages 597-617, May.
    4. David Genesove & Wallace P. Mullin, 1998. "Testing Static Oligopoly Models: Conduct and Cost in the Sugar Industry, 1890-1914," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 29(2), pages 355-377, Summer.
    5. Gosse A.G. Alserda & Jacob A. Bikker & Fieke S.G. Van Der Lecq, 2018. "X-efficiency and economies of scale in pension fund administration and investment," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(48), pages 5164-5188, October.
    6. J. A. Bikker & M. van Leuvensteijn, 2008. "Competition and efficiency in the Dutch life insurance industry," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(16), pages 2063-2084.
    7. Nicola Giocoli, 2012. "Who Invented the Lerner Index? Luigi Amoroso, the Dominant Firm Model, and the Measurement of Market Power," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 41(3), pages 181-191, November.
    8. Bing Xu & Adrian van Rixtel & Michiel van Leuvensteijn, 2016. "Measuring bank competition under binding interest rate regulation: the case of China," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(49), pages 4699-4718, October.
    9. Jacob A. Bikker & Jeroen J. Meringa, 2022. "Have scale effects on cost margins of pension fund investment portfolios disappeared?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(39), pages 4501-4518, August.
    10. Kenneth G. Elzinga & David E. Mills, 2011. "The Lerner Index of Monopoly Power: Origins and Uses," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(3), pages 558-564, May.
    11. Broeders, Dirk W.G.A. & van Oord, Arco & Rijsbergen, David R., 2019. "Does it pay to pay performance fees? Empirical evidence from Dutch pension funds," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 299-312.
    12. Lau, Lawrence J., 1982. "On identifying the degree of competitiveness from industry price and output data," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 10(1-2), pages 93-99.
    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. van Leuvensteijn, Michiel & Huljak, Ivan & de Bondt, Gabe, 2024. "A new measure of firm-level competition: an application to euro area banks," Working Paper Series 2925, European Central Bank.
    2. Michiel van Leuvensteijn & Christoffer Kok Sørensen & Jacob A. Bikker & Adrian A.R.J.M. van Rixtel, 2013. "Impact of bank competition on the interest rate pass-through in the euro area," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(11), pages 1359-1380, April.
    3. Bing Xu & Adrian Van Rixtel & Michiel Van Leuvensteijn, 2013. "Measuring bank competition in China: a comparison of new versus conventional approaches applied to loan markets," BIS Working Papers 422, Bank for International Settlements.
    4. Xiangyi Zhou & Zheng Pei & Botao Qin, 2021. "Assessing Market Competition in the Chinese Banking Industry Based on a Conjectural Variation Model," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 29(2), pages 73-98, March.
    5. Michiel van Leuvensteijn & Jacob Bikker & Adrian van Rixtel & Christoffer Kok Sørensen, 2011. "A new approach to measuring competition in the loan markets of the euro area," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(23), pages 3155-3167.
    6. Ashim Kumar Kar & Ranjula Bali Swain, 2018. "Competition, Performance and Portfolio Quality in Microfinance Markets," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 30(5), pages 842-870, December.
    7. Olszak, Małgorzata & Świtała, Filip & Kowalska, Iwona, 2013. "Competition in commercial banks in Poland – analysis of Panzar-Rosse H-statistics," MPRA Paper 53782, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Topolyan, Iryna & Brasington, David & Xu, Xu, 2019. "Assessing the degree of competitiveness in the market for outpatient hospital services," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    9. Michiel van Leuvensteijn & Christoffer Kok Sørensen & Jacob A. Bikker & Adrian A.R.J.M. van Rixtel, 2013. "Impact of bank competition on the interest rate pass-through in the euro area," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(11), pages 1359-1380, April.
    10. Richards, Timothy J. & Acharya, Ram N. & Kagan, Albert, 2008. "Spatial competition and market power in banking," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 60(5), pages 436-454.
    11. J.A. Bikker & J.G.J. Bekooij, 2021. "Market forces in healthcare insurance: The impact of healthcare reform on regulated competition revisited," Working Papers 2104, Utrecht School of Economics.
    12. Paolo Coccorese & Alfonso Pellecchia, 2010. "Testing the ‘Quiet Life’ Hypothesis in the Italian Banking Industry," Economic Notes, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, vol. 39(3), pages 173-202, November.
    13. Bogdan Capraru & Nicoleta-Livia Pintilie, 2017. "Assessing competition in the European Union banking sector," The Review of Finance and Banking, Academia de Studii Economice din Bucuresti, Romania / Facultatea de Finante, Asigurari, Banci si Burse de Valori / Catedra de Finante, vol. 9(1), pages 007-026, June.
    14. Antonis Michis, 2013. "Measuring Market Power in the Banking Industry in the Presence of Opportunity Cost," Working Papers 2013-1, Central Bank of Cyprus.
    15. Andrei Dubovik & Natasha Kalara, 2018. "Can we measure banking sector competition robustly?," CPB Discussion Paper 386.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    16. Jacob A. Bikker, 2017. "Performance of the life insurance industry under pressure: efficiency, competition and consolidation," Chapters, in: Jacob A. Bikker & Laura Spierdijk (ed.), Handbook of Competition in Banking and Finance, chapter 9, pages 152-182, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    17. Piedrabuena, Bernardita, 2013. "Competencia en el mercado bancario del crédito en Chile," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 4630, Inter-American Development Bank.
    18. Tabacco, Giovanni Alberto, 2013. "A new way to assess banking competition," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 121(2), pages 167-169.
    19. Nguyen-Ones, Mai & Steen, Frode, 2018. "Measuring Market Power in Gasoline Retailing: A Market- or Station Phenomenon?," Discussion Paper Series in Economics 6/2018, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Economics.
    20. Delis, Manthos D., 2010. "Competitive conditions in the Central and Eastern European banking systems," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 268-274, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • D4 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design
    • H55 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Social Security and Public Pensions
    • G22 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Insurance; Insurance Companies; Actuarial Studies
    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors
    • G28 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Government Policy and Regulation

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:dnb:dnbwpp:839. 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: DNB (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dnbgvnl.html .

    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.