Performance evaluation of balanced pension plans

This paper examines the ability of balanced pension plan managers to successfully time the equity and bond market and select the appropriate assets within these markets. In order to evaluate both market timing abilities in these balanced pension plans, we extend the traditional equity market timing models to also account for bond market timing. As far as we know, we are among the first to apply this multifactor timing model to investigate equity and bond market timing simultaneously. This performance evaluation has been conducted on two samples of Spanish balanced pension plans, one with Euro Zone and one with World investment focus. This allows us to decompose managers’ skills into three components: selectivity, equity market timing, and bond market timing. Our findings suggest that the average stock-picking ability of pension plans is positive. World schemes tend to have positive bond timing skills, while Euro Zone pension plans are on average not able to time equity or bond markets.     

The decision to terminate overfunded pension plans

This paper examines management's decision to terminate overfunded pension plans. Plan terminations are controversial because they sometimes redistribute pension funds from employee trusts to the firm. This empirical study compares a sample of firms terminating overfunded pension plans with a sample of firms continuing overfunded plans. The examination finds that both business-related and management-related variables help to explain the termination decision. With respect to business-related variables, firms are more likely to terminate overfunded plans that do not include union employees. These firms also tend to be smaller, have tax carryforwards, and have high financial leverage. With respect to management-related variables, termination firms tend to have management compensation plans based on income and high owner control. The results suggest that management motivation to terminate overfunded plans may be increased when the decision will advance the personal interests of managers.     

Corporate taxes and defined benefit pension plans

The Tepper–Black arguments for tax-arbitrage opportunities from overfunding pension plans are critically examined and modifications proposed. Tax status, a function of current marginal tax rates and expected future taxable income, is predicted to determine funding policy. Tests of this modified tax benefits view suggest that 1) tax status declines are associated with pension contribution reductions, 2) reductions in contributions are related to previous excess contributions as well as non-pension tax shield increases causing the decline in tax status, and 3) cross-sectionally, tax status is related to fund levels, choice of actuarial variables, and the use of defined benefit plans.     

Design of employee pension benefits model and China's pension gender gap

The pension gender gap is a universal concern, and policymakers worldwide strive to address the factors leading to gender inequality. This study examines the pension gender gap problem and its causes and effects in China, conducting micro-empirical simulations on China's employee pension benefits model. We propose solutions to this gender inequality and suggest an intra-family pension benefits transfer for women in a family framework. For family units headed by a single woman, we recommend enhanced tax-deductible contributions by prior employers to strengthen the equality of pensions between genders throughout retirement. This additional support and enhancement of female pensions can effectively narrow the pension gap between male and female beneficiaries while maintaining the system's long-term sustainability. More importantly, these proposed enhancements minimize acute poverty while improving the living standards of female pensioners.     

创新我国企业年金监管制度——基于对全球金融危机的反思

在金融混业经营背景下,如何创新我国企业年金监管的制度安排,以便加强对企业年金委托—代理链条上的风险点的监管,克服市场失灵,防止出现多米诺骨牌效应,降低国家社会保障的系统风险?笔者利用制度经济学等理论分析了我国企业年金监管制度,在反思美国金融混业背景下的企业年金监管制度的基础上,从制度框架和监管机制两个方面提出创新中国企业年金监管制度安排的对策建议。     

社会保障资金该如何筹集?

社会保障制度的建立主要是资金问题,目前主要有无偿性收入筹资、有偿性收入筹资及公有资产出售筹资三种方式.第一种方式筹资实现达不到政策意图,第二种方式受制于财政风险和宏观经济运行的风险,第三种方式有充足的理论依据和现实可操作性,它可以解决目前的资金不足的问题.     

Adopting hybrid pension plans: financial and communication issues

This article provides a systematic framework for the evaluation of the movement toward hybrid pension plans by examining the reasons given by firms for converting their existing pension plans to hybrid plans, illustrating the impact of plan changes on expected pension benefits, and identifying winners and losers.     

社会保障税制设计应如何进行

尽快开征社会保障税,这已成为目前我国大多数人的共识。关键问题是,应如何设计一套既符合我国现实国情,又兼具公平与效率的社会保障税制。本文在分析我国社会保障税制设计应遵循四个原则的基础上,就该税制要素设计的五个重要方面问题进行了详细研讨。     

Cash balance pension plans: A case of standard-setting inadequacy

Accounting for and ownership of U.S. private employee pensions has long been a controversial and politically contested terrain. The uniqueness in the U.S. of using employers as the principal provider of pensions makes the reporting of pensions more problematic since the corporate employers providing pensions are not strictly accountable to only the pensioners. Over the last quarter century there has been a marked swing in power toward management and away from employees making it possible for increasing numbers of U.S. companies to switch from conventional defined benefit plans to cash balance plans. This paper provides a “case” study of how accounting standard-setters framed the pension reporting problem vis-à-vis how they frame the “reporting problem” in general. Utilizing various sources of commentary about the phenomenon of cash-balance conversions, we triangulate on the pension problem to demonstrate how current FASB disclosure rules fail to satisfy the condition of neutrality and how those rules have facilitated the shifting of economic risk from shareholders to employees.     

Valuation, optimal asset allocation and retirement incentives of pension plans

We provide a framework in which we link the valuation and assetallocation policies of defined benefits plans with the lifetimemarginal productivity schedule of the worker and the pensionplan formula. In turn, we examine the retirement policies thatare implied by the primitives of the model and the value ofpension obligations. Our model provides an explicit valuationformula for a stylized defined benefits plan. The optimal assetallocation policies consist of the replicating portfolio independentof the pension liabilities. We show that the worker with retirewhen the ratio of pension benefits to current wages reachesa critical value which depends on the parameters of the pensionplan and the discount rate. Using numerical techniques we analyzethe feedback effect of retirement policies on the valuationof plans and on the asset allocation decisions.     

An analysis of risk-taking behavior for public defined benefit pension plans

This paper presents the first comprehensive study on the determinants of public pension fund investment risk and reports several new important findings. Unlike private pension plans, public funds undertake more risk if they are underfunded and have lower investment returns in the previous years, consistent with the risk transfer hypothesis. Furthermore, pension funds in states facing fiscal constraints allocate more assets to equity and have higher betas. There also appears to be a herding effect in that CalPERS equity allocation or beta is mimicked by other pension funds. Finally, our results suggest that government accounting standards strongly affect pension fund risk, as higher return assumptions (used to discount pension liabilities) are associated with higher equity allocation and portfolio beta.     

A global trend: privatization and reform of social security pension plans

Ten years ago Chile successfully privatized its social security system, beginning a worldwide trend to solve the problem of an increasing burden on government-supported social security programs. Contributing factors include an aging population, fewer workers to support retirees, government budget deficits and the influence of politics.     

Pension plan accounting estimates and the freezing of defined benefit pension plans

This study provides evidence that, when “hard” freezing their defined benefit pension plans, employers select downward biased accounting assumptions to exaggerate the economic burden of their benefit plans. Downward biased expected rates of return and discount rates allow managers to increase reported pension expenses and, for discount rates, allow managers to increase reported pension liabilities. We find that prior to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, both rates are downward biased when firms freeze their plans, whereas after SOX the bias is lower. This finding is consistent with managers opportunistically biasing pension estimates to obtain labor concessions during periods of reduced regulatory scrutiny.     

Fiscal institutions and the funding of US state and local pension plans

This paper investigates the relationship between the funded ratio of US public pension plans and several fiscal institutions adopted by state governments. The author analysed a large data set from 1997 to 2012, and found that states with stricter balanced budget requirements and debt limits had a lower pension funded ratio, whereas states with tax and spending limits in place had a higher funded ratio. The findings contribute to the current debate on public sector pension reforms in the US and internationally.     

Accounting for other postretirement benefits and pension costs at Ohio Edison

This is a case on accounting for Other Post Retirement Employee Benefits (OPEB) (SFAS 106, 1990) and Pensions (SFAS 87, 1985). The objective of the case is to enable accounting students to bridge the gap between the two standards and in so doing achieve a better understanding of both. Students can use their knowledge of pension accounting to improve their comprehension of OPEB accounting. This case is suitable for use in Intermediate Accounting, Accounting Policy, and Financial Management courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels.     

Political-economy of pension plans: Impact of institutions,gender, and culture

National pension systems are an important part of financial intermediation and worker welfare in most countries, but how and why do they differ internationally? Controlling for important political, economic and social institutions, we document that international differences in pension progressivity, or how pensions reflect lifetime earnings, are negatively related to masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, individualism, long-term orientation, employment rights, average pension levels, social trust and economic inequality. We also find that pension progressivity is positively related to the economic and societal role of women, the extent of Catholicism; as well as political voice and accountability. These results provide important insights for both public policy and MNC managers.