Union-Nonunion Differences in Pension Fund Investments and Earnings

Abstract

The authors use IRS data to compare the composition, risk, and rate of return to union pension investments with those of nonunion pension funds. They find almost no differences between single-employer union and single-employer nonunion funds. Collectively bargained, multiemployer funds, however, held less risky portfolios than either union or nonunion single-employer funds. Multi-employer funds averaged a lower risk-adjusted rate of return for 1977–80, but performed as well as nonunion investments from 1981 to 1986. Thus, little evidence is found that “social investing,” most likely to occur in multi-employer funds, has increased the risk or consistently reduced the returns of union pension funds.