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How Does the Market Value Unfunded Pension Liabilities?

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Author Info
Jeremy I. Bulow
Randall Morck
Lawrence H. Summers

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Abstract

We lead off by discussing a number of theoretical reasons for expecting various relationships between a firm's unfunded pension liability and its market value. We then discuss our doubts about the methodology of earlier papers which studied the empirical relation between funding and market value using standard cross sectional techniques. A modified cross sectional approach which alleviates some of these doubts, and a variable effect event study methodology which alleviates most of them are both employed to investigate the issues raised in the first part of the paper. Our conclusion confirms those of earlier studies that unfunded pension liabilities are accurately reflected in lower share prices.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 1602.

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Date of creation: Mar 1987
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:1602

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  1. Zvi Bodie, 1991. "Pension Funds and Financial Innovation," NBER Working Papers 3101, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Takashi Obinata, 2002. "Concept and Relevance of Income," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-171, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo. [Downloadable!]
  3. Julia Lynn Coronado & Steven A. Sharpe, 2003. "Did pension plan accounting contribute to a stock market bubble?," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2003-38, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Julia Coronado & Olivia S. Mitchell & Steven A. Sharpe & S. Blake Nesbitt, 2008. "Footnotes Aren't Enough: The Impact of Pension Accounting on Stock Values," NBER Working Papers 13726, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  5. Steven G. Allen & Robert L. Clark, 1987. "Pensions and Firm Performance," NBER Working Papers 2266, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Francesco Franzoni & José M. Marín, 2005. "Pension Plan Funding and Stock Market Efficiency," Economics Working Papers 871, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  7. B. Douglas Bernheim & John B. Shoven, 1985. "Pension Funding and Saving," NBER Working Papers 1622, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
    • B. Douglas Bernheim & John B. Shoven, 1988. "Pension Funding and Saving," NBER Chapters, in: Pensions in the U.S. Economy, pages 85-114 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!]
  8. James E. Pesando, 1985. "The Usefulness of the Wind-Up Measure of Pension Liabilities: A LabourMarket Perspective," NBER Working Papers 1559, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  9. Li Jin & Robert Merton & Zvi Bobie, 2004. "Do a Firm's Equity Returns Reflect the Risk of Its Pension Plan?," NBER Working Papers 10650, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  10. Takashi Obinata, 2000. "Choice of Pension Discount Rate in Financial Accounting adn Stock Prices," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-82, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo. [Downloadable!]
  11. Scott J. Weisbenner, 2000. "Corporate share repurchases in the 1990s: what role do stock options play?," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2000-29, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). [Downloadable!]
  12. Cardinale, Mirko & Orszag, Mike, 2004. "Severance Pay and Corporate Finance: Empirical Evidence from a Panel of Austrian and Italian Firms," IZA Discussion Papers 1383, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  13. Alicia H. Munnell & Frederick O. Yohn, 1991. "What is the impact of pensions on saving?," Working Papers 91-5, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. [Downloadable!]
  14. Kamakshya Trivedi & Garry Young, . "Defined benefit company pensions and corporate valuations: simulation and empirical evidence from the United Kingdom," Bank of England working papers 289, Bank of England. [Downloadable!]
  15. Robert Holzmann & Robert Palacios & Asta Zviniene, 2001. "On the Economics and Scope of Implicit Pension Debt: An International Perspective," Empirica, Springer, vol. 28(1), pages 97-129, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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