This book focuses on asset allocation strategies under National Pension System (NPS) in India with the purpose to provide greater insights into the topic of portfolio choice in the accumulation phase of financial lifecycle of individuals. With this objective, the book analyses investment strategies as pension fund investment options used under NPS, in light of various alternative asset allocation strategies such as fixed weight asset allocation strategies, lifecycle asset allocation models and dynamic asset allocation strategies that have been suggested in academic and practitioner literature. Specifically, the book evaluates the effectiveness of various strategies employed under NPS, taking into account prevalent theories and approaches. It also provides insights on how employment loss and career breaks affect the pension accumulation outcomes of retirees belonging to different demographic groups with reference to India.

Further, it presents a comprehensive review of the evidence on asset allocation based on the experiences of pension systems of several developed countries which have shifted to a defined contribution based pension system. Subsequently, it focuses on the comprehensive analysis of asset accumulation strategies under NPS and highlights lessons drawn from the experiences of other countries that provide several inputs to investors, pension funds managers and policy makers for making NPS an effective tool for retirement income.

The book targets different kinds of readership such as corporate, fund managers in the pension market, risk management practitioner, researchers and policy makers alike, both in India and abroad, since the evidence on different approaches on asset allocation for retirees indicate a lot of variation in the effectiveness of the strategies in different pension systems across the world. It provides significant insights about the applicability of a pension system like NPS that will act as a lesson for other countries in future.

Anup Basu is currently Professor of Finance, Faculty of Business and Law, School of Economics and Finance, Queensland University of Technology, Australia and a visiting faculty fellow at MIT Sloan School of Management, USA. Prof. Basu is an internationally renowned expert in the field of pensions, investments, and behavioural finance. Prof. Basu has worked on various projects with organisations like Australian Securities and Investments Commission and has received research funding from Australian Research Council and Chicago Board of Options Exchange, among others. He has developed dynamic lifecycle strategies for retirement plan members. His research has been acknowledged by World Bank, OECD and also covered by international media. 

Samaresh Bardhan is currently Associate Professor of Economics, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Ropar. Dr. Bardhan completed his PhD from Jadavpur University, Kolkata. His areas of research include issues of macroeconomics, banking and financial markets. He has received several research grants from ICSSR, India, Ministry of Education, Government of India and Swedish Research Council. Dr. Bardhan is the recipient of the IIMA-MCX award for Excellence, two times, in Research on Gold by India Gold Policy Centre (IGPC), IIM Ahmedabad. Dr. Bardhan has several research papers to his credit in peer-reviewed international journals and co-authored a blog for LSE Business Review. 

Paramita Mukherjee is currently Professor of Economics, School of Economics, XIM University, Bhubaneswar, India. Before that, she was associated with Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Hyderabad and International Management Institute Kolkata. Prof. Mukherjee completed her Ph.D. from Jadavpur University, Kolkata. Her areas of research include applied financial economics, financial markets and time series econometrics. She has authored several research papers in reputed peer-reviewed international journals and handled consulting assignments. Prof. Mukherjee has received research funding from India Gold Policy Centre (IGPC) at IIM Ahmedabad and ICSSR, India. She has received IIMA-MCX award for Excellence in Research on Gold by IGPC. 

Adam Clements is currently Professor of Finance, Faculty of Business and Law, School of Economics and Finance, Queensland University of Technology, Australia. Prof Clements is a renowned econometrician whose research has been applied widely in financial modelling/forecasting including portfolio allocation. Prof. Clements’s research interests include finance, banking and investments. He has also served as the visiting Professor at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain. He has received research grants funded by Australian Competitive Grant, among others. His research has been published in Journal of the American Statistical Association and Journal of Banking and Finance, among others.  

Ahana Bose is a PhD scholar in Economics at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Ropar, India. She holds a master’s degree in economics from Visva-Bharati University, West Bengal, India. Her research interests include macroeconomics, pension economics and finance, asset allocation, and public policy. She served as a Visiting Scholar at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, Australia as a part of the SPARC project at IIT Ropar and actively participated in the collaborative research project between IIT Ropar and QUT.