Highlights from the PeRCent Annual Conference 2026
On November 3 2026, PeRCent hosted its 12th Annual Conference at Copenhagen Business School. Bringing together 150 registered participants from academia, public institutions and the pension industry, the conference facilitated discussions on current developments in pension systems, household finance, welfare policy and financial markets.
The PeRCent Annual Conference 2026 featured a full day of research presentations, policy discussions and opportunities for exchange between academia and practice. Topics ranged from retirement saving and pension system design to housing wealth inequality, financial markets and the future of welfare policy.
The research programme showcased new studies on how households respond to pension benefit cuts, intergenerational risk sharing in pension systems, the distribution of housing returns across income groups, challenges related to the Dutch pension transition and the relationship between interest rates and equity valuations.
A highlight of the conference was the keynote address by John Y. Campbell, who presented The Hardest Question in Investment Management. Drawing on decades of research in finance and household finance, Campbell discussed one of the most fundamental challenges facing investors and financial markets.
In the afternoon, the Policy Forum Welfare Reform 2.0 brought together researchers and industry representatives to discuss the future of welfare systems and pension policy. The discussion was introduced by Torben M. Andersen (Aarhus University & PeRCent) and moderated by Svend E. Hougaard Jensen (CBS & PeRCent) and featured contributions from leading experts from academia and the pension sector: Torsten Fels (PenSam), Malene Kallestrup-Lamb (Aarhus University & PeRCent), and Ward Romp (University of Amsterdam).
The conference concluded with a fireside chat between John Y. Campbell and Jesper Rangvid on US and Global Markets under Trump and Beyond. The conversation addressed current developments in global financial markets and the economic outlook in an increasingly uncertain environment.
PeRCent would like to thank all speakers, discussants, moderators, organisers and participants for contributing to a day of insightful discussions and valuable knowledge exchange.
For those interested, you can download the slides and view photos from the PeRCent Annual Conference 2026 on the conference website.
Photos: Philip Høpner.
