Pictet Research Institute
Based in Geneva, the Pictet Research Institute is a Group-wide capability dedicated to research with long-term implications for investment. It engages in topics ranging from macroeconomics and geopolitics to portfolio implementation solutions.
Long-term thinking
Launched at the beginning of 2024, the Institute is a strategic initiative designed to reinforce Pictet’s leadership in investment thinking. Through its rigorous research, the Institute enables Pictet to anticipate and adapt to the evolving economic and market landscape over the long term. The Institute is staffed by a team of PhD-level researchers and collaborates with leading academics, think tanks, and Pictet Group’s internal experts.
Our research focus is long-term and strategic, rather than tactical, aiming to drive innovation in our investment thinking, processes, and offerings for the benefit of our clients and investment professionals.
About Maria Vassalou
The Pictet Research Institute is led by Maria Vassalou, PhD, who joined Pictet from Goldman Sachs Asset Management, where she was co-CIO of Multi-Asset Solutions. She holds a PhD in Financial Economics from London Business School.
Her 30 years of experience as both an academic and investment professional in the asset management industry will be instrumental in the production of original research.
Full biography
The Institute focuses on producing original research on long-term investment topics, including strategic asset allocation, portfolio construction, risk premia, capital market structures, global economic and investment trends, as well as sustainability.
Inaugural Symposium 2025
Heard in the Room
Held in September 2025, the Pictet Research Institute’s Inaugural Symposium brought together leading academics, industry experts and senior investment professionals from the Pictet Group.
Our Heard in the Room publication provides a summary of the presentations given at the conference.
In the news
Currency hedging: When one size doesn’t fit all
Demographics and technology: A new frontier of investment opportunities at the crossroads of population change and technological innovation
Article from Maria Vassalou published at the Financial Analysts Journal - 10 July 2026
While research often separates demographic risks (shrinking labor force) from automation’s displacement effects, this study bridges them, arguing that aging accelerates the adoption of productivity-enhancing technology, which in turn offsets demographic drag. Investors should focus on country–sector combinations that combine three key conditions: high demographic demand, significant scope for automation, and infrastructure capable of scaling these technologies. This approach moves beyond simply identifying exposure to AI or aging, looking instead at the synergistic potential between demographic change and technological adoption to drive future growth and stability.
Featured media coverage
Pictet in the media · 16 Dec 2025
Ageing demographics and tech drive global investment trends
As worker numbers dwindle and technology shapes sustained growth, investors seeking opportunities must juggle demographic, economic and political models.
Pictet in the media · 30 Oct 2025
The sweet spots for investors are where AI and ageing trends intersect
There are sectors that serve older populations and are conducive to automation
Pictet in the media · 31 Oct 2025
Pictet Study: Fighting the Downturn with Robots
Aging populations and artificial intelligence are often seen as opposites—one slows growth, the other destroys jobs. Yet a new study from the Pictet Research Institute suggests otherwise: if deployed effectively, AI and robotics could form the very foundation of future prosperity in shrinking economies.
BRICS+ and contested global leadership in an era of great power competition: implications for investment management
Featured media coverage
Pictet in the media · 07 Aug 2025
The BRICS coalition is starting to gel into a real threat to the West
President Donald Trump announced last week that not only would he beplacing a 50% tariff on Brazil, but he would also impose an additional 10% tariff on its fellow BRICS members in an effort to counter the group’s “anti-American policy.” The coalition—led by Brazil, Russia, India, China and SouthAfrica—had just days prior renewed their pledges of solidarity and cooperationat its annual summit in Rio de Janeiro.
Pictet in the media · 05 May 2025
Pictet Research’s Vassalou on The Great Power Competition between BRICS+ and the West – ©2025, Bloomberg
Maria Vassalou, PhD, Head of the Pictet Research Institute, speaks with Romaine Bostick and Alix Steel about market outlook among earnings and tariff uncertainty. (Source: Bloomberg)
Pictet in the media · 11 Apr 2025
The US and China are wrestling for global leadership. It will change investing – ©2025, Barron’s
President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs and China’s stinging retaliatory measures are symptomatic of a new contest for global leadership that is reshuffling the geopolitical and economic world order.
Related insights
Macroeconomics · 22 May 2025
Tilting away from the US
US policy is pushing investors to look beyond the US, a reallocation that is set to include private assets.
Macroeconomics · 22 May 2025
BRICS+, US isolationism and the implications for the dollar
Washington's diminished role in the global economy will lead to a steady erosion of the US dollar’s status as a reserve currency.
Macroeconomics · 22 May 2025
The rise of BRICS+ and what it means for emerging market stocks
A new world economic order with BRICS+ nations at its core could give rise to a wealth of investment opportunities within emerging market equities.
Macroeconomics · 14 May 2025
A new world order
From US tariffs to the growing role of emerging markets, the world is changing. Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, former French ambassador to the UK, Germany, Japan and China and member of the Pictet Geopolitical Advisory Board, looks at how we can adapt.
