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Pension funds and Stock Market Volatility: An Empirical Analysis of OECD countries

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  • Thomas Ashok
  • Luca Spataro
  • Mathew Nanditha

Abstract

The paper explores the empirical relationship between the share of pension fund s'assets invested in stocks and stock market volatility in OECD markets. For this purpose, by using panel data of 34 OECD countries from 2000 to 2010, we estimate both a random effects panel model and a Prais-Winsten regression with panel corrected standard errors and autoregressive errors. The econometric estimation documents that there is a significant negative relationship between the share of pension funds assets invested in stocks and stock market volatility in OECD markets. The binary Probit and Logit models further validate the argument that pension funds as institutional investors can dampen stock market volatility.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas Ashok & Luca Spataro & Mathew Nanditha, 2013. "Pension funds and Stock Market Volatility: An Empirical Analysis of OECD countries," Discussion Papers 2013/162, Dipartimento di Economia e Management (DEM), University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
    • Handle: RePEc:pie:dsedps:2013/162
    Note: ISSN 2039-1854
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Pension funds; Stock market volatility; Panel data.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models

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