IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/1103.5978.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Financial Risks and the Pension Protection Fund: Can it Survive Them?

Author

Listed:
  • David Blake
  • John Cotter
  • Kevin Dowd

Abstract

This paper discusses the financial risks faced by the UK Pension Protection Fund (PPF) and what, if anything, it can do about them. It draws lessons from the regulatory regimes under which other financial institutions, such as banks and insurance companies, operate and asks why pension funds are treated differently. It also reviews the experience with other government-sponsored insurance schemes, such as the US Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, upon which the PPF is modelled. We conclude that the PPF will live under the permanent risk of insolvency as a consequence of the moral hazard, adverse selection, and, especially, systemic risks that it faces.

Suggested Citation

  • David Blake & John Cotter & Kevin Dowd, 2011. "Financial Risks and the Pension Protection Fund: Can it Survive Them?," Papers 1103.5978, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:1103.5978
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/1103.5978
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kevin Dowd & David Blake, 2006. "After VaR: The Theory, Estimation, and Insurance Applications of Quantile‐Based Risk Measures," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 73(2), pages 193-229, June.
    2. Treynor, Jack L, 1977. "The Principles of Corporate Pension Finance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 32(2), pages 627-638, May.
    3. Herring, Richard J, 1999. "Credit Risk and Financial Instability," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 15(3), pages 63-79, Autumn.
    4. M.J.B. Hall, 1996. "The amendment to the capital accord to incorporate market risk," BNL Quarterly Review, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, vol. 49(197), pages 271-277.
    5. Zvi Bodie & John B. Shoven & David A. Wise, 1987. "Issues in Pension Economics," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number bodi87-1, March.
    6. Sharpe, William F., 1976. "Corporate pension funding policy," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(3), pages 183-193, June.
    7. Paul H. Kupiec & James M. O'Brien, 1995. "The use of bank trading risk models for regulatory capital purposes," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 95-11, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    8. Alan Marcus, 1987. "Corporate Pension Policy and the Value of PBGC Insurance," NBER Chapters, in: Issues in Pension Economics, pages 49-80, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Patricia Jackson & David Maude & William Perraudin, 1998. "Bank Capital and Value at Risk," Bank of England working papers 79, Bank of England.
    10. David McCarthy & Anthony Neuberger, 2005. "Pricing pension insurance: the proposed levy structure for the Pension Protection Fund," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 26(4), pages 471-489, December.
    11. Langetieg, T. C. & Findlay, M. C. & da Motta, L. F. J., 1982. "Multiperiod Pension Plans and ERISA," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 17(4), pages 603-631, November.
    12. Raghuram G. Rajan, 1994. "Why Bank Credit Policies Fluctuate: A Theory and Some Evidence," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(2), pages 399-441.
    13. Jón Daníelson, 2003. "On the Feasibility of Risk Based Regulation," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 49(2), pages 157-179.
    14. David McCarthy & Anthony Neuberger, 2005. "The Pension Protection Fund," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 26(2), pages 139-167, June.
    15. Christopher M. Lewis & George Pennacchi, 1994. "The value of Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation insurance," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, pages 735-756.
    16. Bodie, Zvi & Shoven, John B. & Wise, David A. (ed.), 1987. "Issues in Pension Economics," National Bureau of Economic Research Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226062846, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. John Cotter & David Blake & Kevin Dowd, 2012. "What Should Be Done About The Underfunding of Defined Benefit Pension Schemes?," Working Papers 201202, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
    2. Platanakis, Emmanouil & Sutcliffe, Charles, 2016. "Pension scheme redesign and wealth redistribution between the members and sponsor: The USS rule change in October 2011," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 14-28.

    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. Romaniuk, Katarzyna, 2019. "Premiums of the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation and risk-taking by pension plans," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 301-307.
    2. Joshua Rauh, 2007. "Risk Shifting versus Risk Management: Investment Policy in Corporate Pension Plans," NBER Working Papers 13240, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Webb, David C., 2004. "Sponsoring company finance and investment and defined benefit pension scheme deficits," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 24699, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Chen, An & Uzelac, Filip, 2014. "A risk-based premium: What does it mean for DB plan sponsors?," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 1-11.
    5. Michaelides, Alexander & Papakyriakou, Panayiotis & Milidonis, Andreas, 2019. "Corporate Pension Plan Funding Levels and Pension Assumptions," CEPR Discussion Papers 13591, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Chen, An, 2011. "A risk-based model for the valuation of pension insurance," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 401-409.
    7. Qian, Linyi & Shen, Yang & Wang, Wei & Yang, Zhixin, 2019. "Valuation of risk-based premium of DB pension plan with terminations," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 51-63.
    8. David McCarthy & David Miles, 2013. "Optimal Portfolio Allocation for Corporate Pension Funds," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 19(3), pages 599-629, June.
    9. John Cotter & David Blake & Kevin Dowd, 2012. "What Should Be Done About The Underfunding of Defined Benefit Pension Schemes?," Working Papers 201202, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
    10. repec:dau:papers:123456789/13624 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Zvi Bodie, 1989. "Pension Funds and Financial Innovation," NBER Working Papers 3101, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Coronado, Julia & Mitchell, Olivia S. & Sharpe, Steven A. & Blake Nesbitt, S., 2008. "Footnotes aren't enough: the impact of pension accounting on stock values," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 7(3), pages 257-276, November.
    13. Móricz, Dániel, 2004. "Vállalati szolgáltatási nyugdíjprogramok optimális befektetési politikája és fedezettségi szintje az Egyesült Államokban [Optimal investment and funding policy of US defined-benefit pension plans]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(12), pages 1113-1131.
    14. Alan Marcus, 1987. "Corporate Pension Policy and the Value of PBGC Insurance," NBER Chapters, in: Issues in Pension Economics, pages 49-80, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Dirk Broeders & An Chen, 2013. "Pension Benefit Security: A Comparison of Solvency Requirements, a Pension Guarantee Fund, and Sponsor Support," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 80(2), pages 239-272, June.
    16. Paul J. M. Klumpes & Kevin McMeeking, 2007. "Stock Market Sensitivity to U.K. Firms' Pension Discounting Assumptions," Risk Management and Insurance Review, American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 10(2), pages 221-246, September.
    17. Romaniuk, Katarzyna, 2021. "Pension insurance schemes and moral hazard: The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation should restrict the insured pension plans’ portfolio policy," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 37-43.
    18. Jules H. van Binsbergen & Robert Novy-Marx & Joshua Rauh, 2014. "Financial Valuation of PBGC Insurance with Market-Implied Default Probabilities," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 28, pages 133-154, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Wolfgang Gerke & Ferdinand Mager & Timo Reinschmidt & Christian Schmieder, 2008. "Empirical Risk Analysis of Pension Insurance: The Case of Germany," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 75(3), pages 763-784, September.
    20. An, Heng & Huang, Zhaodan & Zhang, Ting, 2013. "What determines corporate pension fund risk-taking strategy?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 597-613.
    21. Smetters, Kent, 2002. "Controlling the cost of minimum benefit guarantees in public pension conversions," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 1(1), pages 9-33, March.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors
    • G0 - Financial Economics - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:arx:papers:1103.5978. 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: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    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.