IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/bejeap/v12y2012i1n23.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Timing of Retirement Plan Contributions and Investment Returns: The Case of Defined Benefit versus Defined Contribution

Author

Listed:
  • Dvorak Tomas

    (Union College)

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of the timing of contributions to defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) plans on investment returns. I show that net contributions to DB plans are counter-cyclical, while net contributions to DC plans are uncorrelated with the business cycle. Given the past mean reversion in equity prices, the counter-cyclicality of net contributions to DB plans means that dollar-weighted returns on DB plans are higher than the geometric average of annual returns. Therefore, using dollar-weighted returns as a measure of investment performance, the advantage of DB plans over DC plans is greater than using geometric average returns. Overall, I find that dollar-weighted returns on DB plans are more than one percentage point higher than that on DC plans.

Suggested Citation

  • Dvorak Tomas, 2012. "Timing of Retirement Plan Contributions and Investment Returns: The Case of Defined Benefit versus Defined Contribution," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 1-26, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:bejeap:v:12:y:2012:i:1:n:23
    DOI: 10.1515/1935-1682.3110
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/1935-1682.3110
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1515/1935-1682.3110?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ilia D. Dichev, 2007. "What Are Stock Investors’ Actual Historical Returns? Evidence from Dollar-Weighted Returns," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(1), pages 386-401, March.
    2. Coile Courtney C & Levine Phillip B, 2011. "The Market Crash and Mass Layoffs: How the Current Economic Crisis May Affect Retirement," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 11(1), pages 1-42, April.
    3. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 1993. "Common risk factors in the returns on stocks and bonds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 3-56, February.
    4. Dichev, Ilia D. & Yu, Gwen, 2011. "Higher risk, lower returns: What hedge fund investors really earn," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(2), pages 248-263, May.
    5. Poterba, James & Rauh, Joshua & Venti, Steven & Wise, David, 2007. "Defined contribution plans, defined benefit plans, and the accumulation of retirement wealth," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(10), pages 2062-2086, November.
    6. John Y. Campbell & Robert J. Shiller, 2001. "Valuation Ratios and the Long-Run Stock Market Outlook: An Update," NBER Working Papers 8221, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Juan Yermo & Clara Severinson, 2010. "The Impact of the Financial Crisis on Defined Benefit Plans and the Need for Counter-Cyclical Funding Regulations," OECD Working Papers on Finance, Insurance and Private Pensions 3, OECD Publishing.
    8. Friesen, Geoffrey C. & Sapp, Travis R.A., 2007. "Mutual fund flows and investor returns: An empirical examination of fund investor timing ability," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(9), pages 2796-2816, September.
    9. Ronald Balvers & Yangru Wu & Erik Gilliland, 2000. "Mean Reversion across National Stock Markets and Parametric Contrarian Investment Strategies," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(2), pages 745-772, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bessembinder, Hendrik & Cooper, Michael J. & Zhang, Feng, 2023. "Mutual fund performance at long horizons," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(1), pages 132-158.
    2. Muñoz, Fernando, 2016. "Cash flow timing skills of socially responsible mutual fund investors," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 110-124.
    3. Bradley Jones, 2016. "Institutionalizing Countercyclical Investment: A Framework for Long-term Asset Owners," IMF Working Papers 2016/038, International Monetary Fund.
    4. Ciccotello, Conrad & Greene, Jason & Ling, Leng & Rakowski, David, 2011. "Capacity and factor timing effects in active portfoliomanagement," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 277-300, May.
    5. Muñoz, Fernando & Vicente, Ruth, 2018. "Hindsight effect: What are the actual cash flow timing skills of mutual fund investors?," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 181-193.
    6. Yamani, Ehab, 2023. "The informational role of fund flow in the profitable predictability of mutual funds," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    7. Geoffrey C. Friesen & Noel Pavel Jeutang & Emre Unlu, 2022. "The Effect of Unsuccessful Past Repurchases on Future Repurchasing Decisions," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(1), pages 716-739, January.
    8. Sun, Lingxia & Lee, Dong Wook, 2019. "Dollar-weighted return on aggregate corporate sector: How is it distributed across countries?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    9. Rakowski, David & Yamani, Ehab, 2021. "Endogeneity in the mutual fund flow–performance relationship: An instrumental variables solution," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 247-271.
    10. Jezek, M., 2009. "Passive Investors, Active Traders and Strategic Delegation of Price Discovery," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0951, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    11. Ben-Rephael, Azi & Kandel, Shmuel & Wohl, Avi, 2012. "Measuring investor sentiment with mutual fund flows," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(2), pages 363-382.
    12. Dariusz Filip & Tomasz Rogala, 2021. "Analysis of Polish mutual funds performance: a Markovian approach," Statistics in Transition New Series, Polish Statistical Association, vol. 22(1), pages 115-130, March.
    13. Long, Huaigang & Zaremba, Adam & Zhou, Wenyu & Bouri, Elie, 2022. "Macroeconomics matter: Leading economic indicators and the cross-section of global stock returns," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    14. Guglielmo Maria Caporale & Luis A. Gil-Alana & Miguel Martin-Valmayor, 2020. "Persistence in the Realized Betas: Some Evidence for the Spanish Stock Market," CESifo Working Paper Series 8171, CESifo.
    15. Adam Zaremba & Jacob Koby Shemer, 2018. "Price-Based Investment Strategies," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-319-91530-2, September.
    16. Jiang, Xiaoquan & Lee, Bong-Soo, 2007. "Stock returns, dividend yield, and book-to-market ratio," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 455-475, February.
    17. Filip Dariusz & Rogala Tomasz, 2021. "Analysis of Polish mutual funds performance: a Markovian approach," Statistics in Transition New Series, Polish Statistical Association, vol. 22(1), pages 115-130, March.
    18. Yan-Ting Lin & Shang-Chi Gong & Sou-Shan Wu & Tsung-Pei Lee, 2012. "E/P Mean Reversion-Based Strategies for Investment Practice: Evidence from the Taiwan Market," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(1), pages 117-131, January.
    19. Geetesh Bhardwaj & Gary B. Gorton & K. Geert Rouwenhorst, 2008. "Fooling Some of the People All of the Time: The Inefficient Performance and Persistence of Commodity Trading Advisors," NBER Working Papers 14424, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Fernando Rubio, 2005. "Estrategias Cuantitativas De Valor Y Retornos Por Accion De Largo," Finance 0503029, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpj:bejeap:v:12:y:2012:i:1:n:23. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.