Should Institutional Investors Own Gold?

Abstract

Institutional investors are not significant owners of gold. If gold effectively hedges inflation, then gold could merit consideration as a strategic allocation in a pension fund. This article evaluates gold’s ability to hedge inflation and monetary policy and tests whether gold should receive a strategic allocation in a pension fund. The findings show that gold is a better inflation hedging tool than other commodities and that, even at a low level of expected return, gold receives a positive strategic allocation in a diversified plan.

TOPICS: Other real assets, pension funds, portfolio construction