An Analysis of the Age and Gender Diversity of the Dutch Pension Boards of 2019

It has almost been a decade since self-regulation on diversity of Dutch pension boards was introduced in 2010.Our results indicate that pension boards havesignificantly improvedwhen it comes to havingmore female directors within their boards. However, when it comes to employingyoung directorsin a way to improve diversity,pension funds drastically fail to comply. Surprisingly,fundsare actually doing the opposite and are instead increasing the numberof older workers within their boards.This indicates that there is a high possibility the Dutch Parliamentwill introduce mandatory legislation rules for age diversity in pension boards by2020. We also examined the determinants of gender and age diversity of pension fund boards by collecting data from board members of the top 100 largest Dutch pension funds. Our results indicate that the trendtowards new governance models and one-tier board structureshave not helped make a difference in board diversity. Further,evidence is foundsupportingthe conclusion by Shi, Swinkels and van der Lecq (2017) that larger boards are more likely to satisfy the diversity criteria.