Do a Firm's Equity Returns Reflect the Risk of its Pension Plan?

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ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 38 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (129 download)

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Book Synopsis Do a Firm's Equity Returns Reflect the Risk of its Pension Plan? by : Zvi Bobie

Download or read book Do a Firm's Equity Returns Reflect the Risk of its Pension Plan? written by Zvi Bobie and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 38 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper examines the empirical question of whether systematic equity risk of U.S. firms as measured by beta from the Capital Asset Pricing Model reflects the risk of their pension plans. There are a number of reasons to suspect that it might not. Chief among them is the opaque set of accounting rules used to report pension assets, liabilities, and expenses. Pension plan assets and liabilities are off-balance sheet, and are often viewed as segregated from the rest of the firm, with its own trustees. Pension accounting rules are complicated. Furthermore, the role of Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation further clouds the real relation between pension plan risk and firm equity risk. The empirical findings in this paper are consistent with the hypothesis that equity risk does reflect the risk of the firm's pension plan despite arcane accounting rules for pensions. This finding is consistent with informational efficiency of the capital markets. It also has implications for corporate finance practice in the determination of the cost of capital for capital budgeting. Standard procedure uses de-leveraged equity return betas to infer the cost of capital for operating assets. But the de-leveraged betas are not adjusted for the risk of the pension assets and liabilities. Failure to make this adjustment will typically bias upwards estimates of the discount rate for capital budgeting. The magnitude of the bias is shown here to be large for a number of well-known U.S. companies. This bias can result in positive net-present-value projects being rejected.

Do a Firm's Equity Returns Reflect the Risk of Its Pension Plans?

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ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 56 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Do a Firm's Equity Returns Reflect the Risk of Its Pension Plans? by : Li Jin

Download or read book Do a Firm's Equity Returns Reflect the Risk of Its Pension Plans? written by Li Jin and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper examines the empirical question of whether systematic equity risk of U.S. firms as measured by beta from the Capital Asset Pricing Model reflects the risk of their pension plans. There are a number of reasons to suspect that it might not. Chief among them is the opaque set of accounting rules used to report pension assets, liabilities, and expenses. Pension plan assets and liabilities are off-balance sheet, and are often viewed as segregated from the rest of the firm, with its own trustees. Pension accounting rules are complicated. Furthermore, the role of Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation further clouds the real relation between pension plan risk and firm equity risk. The empirical findings in this paper are consistent with the hypothesis that equity risk does reflect the risk of the firm's pension plan despite arcane accounting rules for pensions. This finding is consistent with informational efficiency of the capital markets. It also has implications for corporate finance practice in the determination of the cost of capital for capital budgeting. Standard procedure uses de-leveraged equity return betas to infer the cost of capital for operating assets. But the de-leveraged betas are not adjusted for the risk of the pension assets and liabilities. Failure to make this adjustment will typically bias upwards estimates of the discount rate for capital budgeting. The magnitude of the bias is shown here to be large for a number of well-known U.S. companies. This bias can result in positive net-present-value projects being rejected.

Do a Firm's Equity Returns Reject the Risk of Its Pension Plans?

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ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 38 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (567 download)

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Book Synopsis Do a Firm's Equity Returns Reject the Risk of Its Pension Plans? by : Jin Li

Download or read book Do a Firm's Equity Returns Reject the Risk of Its Pension Plans? written by Jin Li and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 38 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper examines the empirical question of whether systematic equity risk of U.S. firms as measured by beta from the Capital Asset Pricing Model reflects the risk of their pension plans. There are a number of reasons to suspect that it might not. Chief among them is the opaque set of accounting rules used to report pension assets, liabilities, and expenses. Pension plan assets and liabilities are off-balance sheet, and are often viewed as segregated from the rest of the firm, with its own trustees. Pension accounting rules are complicated. Furthermore, the role of Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation further clouds the real relation between pension plan risk and firm equity risk. The empirical findings in this paper are consistent with the hypothesis that equity risk does reflect the risk of the firm's pension plan despite arcane accounting rules for pensions. This finding is consistent with informational efficiency of the capital markets. It also has implications for corporate finance practice in the determination of the cost of capital for capital budgeting. Standard procedure uses de-leveraged equity return betas to infer the cost of capital for operating assets. But the deleveraged betas are not adjusted for the risk of the pension assets and liabilities. Failure to make this adjustment will typically bias upwards estimates of the discount rate for capital budgeting. The magnitude of the bias is shown here to be large for a number of well-known U.S. companies. This bias can result in positive net-present-value projects being rejected.--NBER website.

Do a Firm's Equity Returns Reflect the Risk of Its Pension Plan?

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ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 76 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (568 download)

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Book Synopsis Do a Firm's Equity Returns Reflect the Risk of Its Pension Plan? by : Li Jin

Download or read book Do a Firm's Equity Returns Reflect the Risk of Its Pension Plan? written by Li Jin and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper examines the empirical question of whether systematic equity risk of U.S. firms as measured by beta from the Capital Asset Pricing Model reflects the risk of their pension plans. There are a number of reasons to suspect that it might not. Chief among them is the opaque set of accounting rules used to report pension assets, liabilities, and expenses. Pension plan assets and liabilities are off-balance sheet, and are often viewed as segregated from the rest of the firm, with its own trustees. Pension accounting rules are complicated. Furthermore, the role of Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation further clouds the real relation between pension plan risk and firm equity risk. The empirical findings in this paper are consistent with the hypothesis that equity risk does reflect the risk of the firm's pension plan despite arcane accounting rules for pensions. This finding is consistent with informational efficiency of the capital markets. It also has implications for corporate finance practice in the determination of the cost of capital for capital budgeting. Standard procedure uses de-leveraged equity return betas to infer the cost of capital for operating assets. But the de-leveraged betas are not adjusted for the risk of the pension assets and liabilities. Failure to make this adjustment will typically bias upwards estimates of the discount rate for capital budgeting. The magnitude of the bias is shown here to be large for a number of well-known U.S. companies. This bias can result in positive net-present-value projects being rejected

The Influence of Defined Benefit Plans on Equity Risks and Prices

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ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (899 download)

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Book Synopsis The Influence of Defined Benefit Plans on Equity Risks and Prices by : Kunal Rawal

Download or read book The Influence of Defined Benefit Plans on Equity Risks and Prices written by Kunal Rawal and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper examines whether the systematic equity risk of German companies, measured by beta from Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), reflects the risk of defined benefit pension plans sponsored by the companies. The possible reasons why pension risk does not get incorporated into company valuations could be low disclosure norms, off balance sheet reporting of pension liabilities and opaque set of accounting rules that govern these issues. In the aftermath of an era of low interest rates and declining returns on equity markets, the pension plans deficit have soared due to increase in liability on one hand and lower valuation of pension assets on the other. Pension plan deficits can be detrimental to company's financial health thereby, impacting its equity valuation and credit ratings, jeopardizing its very existence. This paper also highlights the implication of pension plan on capital budgeting decision making process. As it turns out, ignoring the value as well as risk of pension plans can push up the cost of capital which feeds into discount rates used to estimate projects net present value. This paper advices on the changes that need to be made to standard procedure of WACC calculation to accommodate pension plan and take an integrated approach towards corporate finance decision making process. The empirical finding also highlights the direct relationship between firm risk and pension risk, although the results were curtailed due to unavailability of large cross sectional and panel data.

Financial Aspects of the United States Pension System

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Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226062899
Total Pages : 466 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (26 download)

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Book Synopsis Financial Aspects of the United States Pension System by : Zvi Bodie

Download or read book Financial Aspects of the United States Pension System written by Zvi Bodie and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2008-04-15 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides valuable information and analysis to managers, policymakers, and investment counselors in the rapidly expanding field of pension funding. American workers, too, need answers and insights on how to invest their money and plan for their retirement. fifteen of America's leading financial analysts address such pressing questions as -What is the current financial status of the elderly, and how vulnerable are they to inflation? -What is the impact of inflation on the private pension system, and what are the effects of alternative indexing schemes? -What roles can the social security system play in the provision of retirement income? -What is the effect of the tax code and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) on corporate pension policy? -How well funded are corporate pension plans, and is a firm's unfunded pension liability fully reflected in the market value of its common stock? Many of the conclusions these experts reach contradict and challenge popular views, thus providing fertile ground for innovation in pension planning.

Issues in Pension Economics

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Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 9780226062846
Total Pages : 384 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (628 download)

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Book Synopsis Issues in Pension Economics by : Zvi Bodie

Download or read book Issues in Pension Economics written by Zvi Bodie and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1987-03-01 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the past several decades, pension plans have become one of the most significant institutional influences on labor and financial markets in the U.S. In an effort to understand the economic effects of this growth, the National Bureau of Economic Research embarked on a major research project in 1980. Issues in Pension Economics, the third in a series of four projected volumes to result from thsi study, covers a broad range of pension issues and utilizes new and richer data sources than have been previously available. The papers in this volume cover such issues as the interaction of pension-funding decisions and corporate finances; the role of pensions in providing adequate and secure retirement income, including the integration of pension plans with social security and significant drops in the U.S. saving rate; and the incentive effects of pension plans on labor market behavior and the implications of plans on labor market behavior and the implications of plans for different demographic groups. Issues in Pension Economics offers important empirical studies and makes valuable theoretical contributions to current thinking in an area that will most likely continue to be a source of controversy and debate for some time to come. The volume should prove useful to academics and policymakers, as well as to members of the business and labor communities.

Pension Risk and Equity Returns

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ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 40 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (13 download)

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Book Synopsis Pension Risk and Equity Returns by : Craig J. Chapman

Download or read book Pension Risk and Equity Returns written by Craig J. Chapman and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We develop an analytical framework that divides the contribution of pension risk to the total systematic risk of the firm into two parts: (1) the risk due to the investment strategy of the pension plan (“Mismatch Risk”); and (2) the risk due to the funded status of the pension plan (“Deficit Risk”). We then use this framework to show that the financial statement treatment of pension plan obligations has implications for how pension risk is impounded into equity returns. Our empirical strategy uses variation in the financial statement effect of two new accounting standards as natural experiments to generate inferences. In contrast with the empirical finding in Jin, Merton and Bodie (2006), we find that pension risk is only reflected in equity returns when the underlying drivers of risk are disclosed and recognized on the firm's financial statements.

Restructuring Retirement Risks

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Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 0191525456
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (915 download)

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Book Synopsis Restructuring Retirement Risks by : David Blitzstein

Download or read book Restructuring Retirement Risks written by David Blitzstein and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2006-08-03 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book posits that retirement security is the central policy concern of our time. A generation of 'Baby Boomers' is on the verge of retirement, yet pension systems confront crushing challenges, and governments often appear confused about which direction they should move in. Contributors to this volume clarify the discussion by addressing the question: 'What are the new risks and rewards in pensions, and what paths can stakeholders chose to solve these problems?'. The chapters set their sights on employees' needs and expectations, employers' intentions and realizations, and policymakers' efforts to resolve the many challenges. Despite the fact that retirement systems face deep stresses exacerbated by volatile capital markets, poor corporate earning streams, weak macroeconomic performance, and international turmoil, nevertheless, contributors in this volume show courage and creativity in plotting the course over uneven terrain. In the book, three aspects of the evolution of risk and reward-sharing in retirement are evaluated, to offer guidance to pension fiduciaries, plan participants, and policymakers. First, it formulates new perspectives for assessing retirement risks and rewards. Second, it evaluates efforts to insure retirement plans. Third, it proposes several new strategies for managing retirement system risk. The volume represents an invaluable addition to the Pension Research Council/Oxford University Press series. It will be especially useful for managers working toward more efficient pension plans; to scholars and policymakers seeking to maximize pension design effectiveness; and to actuaries and tax specialists concerned with pension regulation. The Pension Research Council at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania was founded 50 years ago to encourage research and teaching on pensions and retirement security. Council projects address the long-term issues that underlie contemporary concerns and seek to broaden public understanding of these complex arrangements through research into their social, economic, legal, actuarial, and financial foundations of privately and publicly-provided benefits.

Accountants' Handbook, Volume 1

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Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 0470108924
Total Pages : 1057 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (71 download)

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Book Synopsis Accountants' Handbook, Volume 1 by : D. R. Carmichael

Download or read book Accountants' Handbook, Volume 1 written by D. R. Carmichael and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2007-06-04 with total page 1057 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This highly regarded reference is relied on by a considerable part of the accounting profession in their day-to-day work. This handbook is the first place many accountants look to find answers to practice questions. Its comprehensive scope is widely recognized and relied on. It is designed as a single reference source that provides answers to all reasonable questions on accounting and financial reporting asked by accountants, auditors, bankers, lawyers, financial analysts, and other preparers and users of accounting information.

The Oxford Handbook of Pensions and Retirement Income

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Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 9780199272464
Total Pages : 954 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (724 download)

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Book Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of Pensions and Retirement Income by : Gordon L. Clark

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Pensions and Retirement Income written by Gordon L. Clark and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2006-07-20 with total page 954 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This handbook draws on research from a range of academic disciplines to reflect on the implications for provisions of pension and retirement income of demographic ageing. it reviews the latest research, policy related tools, analytical methods and techniques and major theoretical frameworks.

Aging and the Macroeconomy

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Publisher : National Academies Press
ISBN 13 : 0309261961
Total Pages : 230 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (92 download)

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Book Synopsis Aging and the Macroeconomy by : National Research Council

Download or read book Aging and the Macroeconomy written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2013-01-10 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The United States is in the midst of a major demographic shift. In the coming decades, people aged 65 and over will make up an increasingly large percentage of the population: The ratio of people aged 65+ to people aged 20-64 will rise by 80%. This shift is happening for two reasons: people are living longer, and many couples are choosing to have fewer children and to have those children somewhat later in life. The resulting demographic shift will present the nation with economic challenges, both to absorb the costs and to leverage the benefits of an aging population. Aging and the Macroeconomy: Long-Term Implications of an Older Population presents the fundamental factors driving the aging of the U.S. population, as well as its societal implications and likely long-term macroeconomic effects in a global context. The report finds that, while population aging does not pose an insurmountable challenge to the nation, it is imperative that sensible policies are implemented soon to allow companies and households to respond. It offers four practical approaches for preparing resources to support the future consumption of households and for adapting to the new economic landscape.

Strategic Asset Allocation

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Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 019160691X
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (916 download)

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Book Synopsis Strategic Asset Allocation by : John Y. Campbell

Download or read book Strategic Asset Allocation written by John Y. Campbell and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2002-01-03 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Academic finance has had a remarkable impact on many financial services. Yet long-term investors have received curiously little guidance from academic financial economists. Mean-variance analysis, developed almost fifty years ago, has provided a basic paradigm for portfolio choice. This approach usefully emphasizes the ability of diversification to reduce risk, but it ignores several critically important factors. Most notably, the analysis is static; it assumes that investors care only about risks to wealth one period ahead. However, many investors—-both individuals and institutions such as charitable foundations or universities—-seek to finance a stream of consumption over a long lifetime. In addition, mean-variance analysis treats financial wealth in isolation from income. Long-term investors typically receive a stream of income and use it, along with financial wealth, to support their consumption. At the theoretical level, it is well understood that the solution to a long-term portfolio choice problem can be very different from the solution to a short-term problem. Long-term investors care about intertemporal shocks to investment opportunities and labor income as well as shocks to wealth itself, and they may use financial assets to hedge their intertemporal risks. This should be important in practice because there is a great deal of empirical evidence that investment opportunities—-both interest rates and risk premia on bonds and stocks—-vary through time. Yet this insight has had little influence on investment practice because it is hard to solve for optimal portfolios in intertemporal models. This book seeks to develop the intertemporal approach into an empirical paradigm that can compete with the standard mean-variance analysis. The book shows that long-term inflation-indexed bonds are the riskless asset for long-term investors, it explains the conditions under which stocks are safer assets for long-term than for short-term investors, and it shows how labor income influences portfolio choice. These results shed new light on the rules of thumb used by financial planners. The book explains recent advances in both analytical and numerical methods, and shows how they can be used to understand the portfolio choice problems of long-term investors.

Heterogeneity and Persistence in Returns to Wealth

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Publisher : International Monetary Fund
ISBN 13 : 1484370066
Total Pages : 69 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (843 download)

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Book Synopsis Heterogeneity and Persistence in Returns to Wealth by : Andreas Fagereng

Download or read book Heterogeneity and Persistence in Returns to Wealth written by Andreas Fagereng and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2018-07-27 with total page 69 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We provide a systematic analysis of the properties of individual returns to wealth using twelve years of population data from Norway’s administrative tax records. We document a number of novel results. First, during our sample period individuals earn markedly different average returns on their financial assets (a standard deviation of 14%) and on their net worth (a standard deviation of 8%). Second, heterogeneity in returns does not arise merely from differences in the allocation of wealth between safe and risky assets: returns are heterogeneous even within asset classes. Third, returns are positively correlated with wealth: moving from the 10th to the 90th percentile of the financial wealth distribution increases the return by 3 percentage points - and by 17 percentage points when the same exercise is performed for the return to net worth. Fourth, wealth returns exhibit substantial persistence over time. We argue that while this persistence partly reflects stable differences in risk exposure and assets scale, it also reflects persistent heterogeneity in sophistication and financial information, as well as entrepreneurial talent. Finally, wealth returns are (mildly) correlated across generations. We discuss the implications of these findings for several strands of the wealth inequality debate.

Evaluating the Financial Performance of Pension Funds

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Publisher : World Bank Publications
ISBN 13 : 0821381601
Total Pages : 300 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (213 download)

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Book Synopsis Evaluating the Financial Performance of Pension Funds by : Richard Hinz

Download or read book Evaluating the Financial Performance of Pension Funds written by Richard Hinz and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2010-01-14 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Countries around the world are increasingly relying on individual pension savings accounts to provide income in old age for their citizens. Although these funds have now been in place for several decades, their performance is usually measured using methods that are not meaningful in relation to this long-term objective. The recent global financial crisis has highlighted the need to develop better performance evaluation methods that are consistent with the retirement income objective of pension funds. Compiling research derived from a partnership among the World Bank, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and three private partners, 'Evaluating the Financial Performance of Pension Funds' discusses the theoretical basis and key implementation issues related to the design of performance benchmarks based on life-cycle savings and investment principles. The book begins with an evaluation of the financial performance of funded pension systems using the standard mean variance framework. It then provides a discussion of the limitations inherent to applying these methods to pension funds and outlines the many other issues that should be addressed in developing more useful and meaningful performance measures through the formulation of pension-specific benchmark portfolios. Practical implementation issues are addressed through empirical examples of how such benchmarks could be developed. The book concludes with commentary and observations from several noted pension experts about the need for a new approach to performance measurement and the impact of the recent global financial crisis on pension funds.

Pension Finance

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Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 9780470058701
Total Pages : 484 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (587 download)

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Book Synopsis Pension Finance by : David Blake

Download or read book Pension Finance written by David Blake and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2006-11-02 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a secure grounding in the theory and practice of finance insofar as it deals with pension matters. By using it, the reader will understand the various types of investment assets; * the allocation of personal wealth to different asset classes * corporate pension finance * the financial aspects of defined contribution pension plans during both the accumulation and distribution phases * the financial aspects of defined benefit pension plans * the role of pension funds and pension fund management * pension fund performance measurement and attribution * risk management in pension funds

The Expected-Rate-Of-Return Assumption Fails to Reflect Cross-Sectional Differences in Pension Asset Allocation

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (129 download)

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Book Synopsis The Expected-Rate-Of-Return Assumption Fails to Reflect Cross-Sectional Differences in Pension Asset Allocation by : Eli Amir

Download or read book The Expected-Rate-Of-Return Assumption Fails to Reflect Cross-Sectional Differences in Pension Asset Allocation written by Eli Amir and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We use pension asset allocation data to examine the relation between the expected long-term rate of return (ERR) on pension assets and the amount of funds allocated by fund managers to equity securities. If firms use their best estimate of the ERR, then cross-sectional differences in the ERR should reflect cross-sectional differences in the riskiness of the underlying portfolio of plan assets. We find a weak association between the assumed ERR and the percentage of equity investments. However, we find that the ERR is negatively associated with the funding status of the plan, positively associated with leverage and negatively associated with pension-related labor renegotiation costs. These findings lead us to conclude that firms do not use their best estimate of the ERR; rather, they choose this parameter to reduce the reported pension expense, to reduce the probability of violating debt covenants, and to minimize labor negotiations costs.