IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jbfnac/v50y2023i7-8p1101-1127.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The elusive relation between pension discount rates and deficits

Author

Listed:
  • Seth Armitage
  • Ronan Gallagher
  • Jiaman Xu

Abstract

The relation between defined‐benefit (DB) pension discount rates and funding status is more complex than it might first appear. Existing evidence suffers from estimation biases that make precise inference unreliable. We document the biases and quantify their impact on inference in relation to corporate window‐dressing of DB funding status. Our empirical evidence from the United Kingdom suggests that pension sponsors use discretion in the choice of pension discount rate not only to reduce reported deficits but also to reduce reported surpluses.

Suggested Citation

  • Seth Armitage & Ronan Gallagher & Jiaman Xu, 2023. "The elusive relation between pension discount rates and deficits," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(7-8), pages 1101-1127, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:jbfnac:v:50:y:2023:i:7-8:p:1101-1127
    DOI: 10.1111/jbfa.12658
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jbfa.12658
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/jbfa.12658?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sharad Asthana, 1999. "Determinants of Funding Strategies and Actuarial Choices for Defined†Benefit Pension Plans," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(1), pages 39-74, March.
    2. Fried, Abraham & Davis-Friday, Paquita & Davis, Harry Z., 2014. "The impact of duration on management's discount rate choice," Research in Accounting Regulation, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 217-221.
    3. Yang Bao & Bin Ke & Bin Li & Y. Julia Yu & Jie Zhang, 2020. "Detecting Accounting Fraud in Publicly Traded U.S. Firms Using a Machine Learning Approach," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(1), pages 199-235, March.
    4. Comprix, Joseph & Muller III, Karl A., 2011. "Pension plan accounting estimates and the freezing of defined benefit pension plans," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(1-2), pages 115-133, February.
    5. Qiang Cheng & Laura Swenson, 2018. "Executive compensation and cash contributions to defined benefit pension plans," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(9-10), pages 1224-1259, October.
    6. Zvi Bodie & Jay O. Light & Randall Morck, 1987. "Funding and Asset Allocation in Corporate Pension Plans: An Empirical Investigation," NBER Chapters, in: Issues in Pension Economics, pages 15-48, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Denise A. Jones, 2013. "Changes in the Funded Status of Retirement Plans after the Adoption of SFAS No. 158: Economic Improvement or Balance Sheet Management," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(3), pages 1099-1132, September.
    8. Sweeting, P. J., 2011. "What SSAP 24 can tell us about accounting quality," British Actuarial Journal, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(03), pages 723-775, September.
    9. Frank S. Skinner & Michalis Ioannides, 2005. "FRS17 and the Sterling Double A Corporate Yield Curve," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(5‐6), pages 1141-1169, June.
    10. Alderson, Michael J. & Betker, Brian L. & Halford, Joseph T., 2017. "Are managers paid for better levels of pension funding?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 25-33.
    11. Francis, Jere R. & Reiter, Sara Ann, 1987. "Determinants of corporate pension funding strategy," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 35-59, April.
    12. Mirko Cardinale, 2007. "Corporate Pension Funding and Credit Spreads," Financial Analysts Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 63(5), pages 82-101, September.
    13. Sweeting, P. J., 2011. "What SSAP 24 can tell us about accounting quality," British Actuarial Journal, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(3), pages 723-775, September.
    14. Divya Anantharaman, 2017. "The role of specialists in financial reporting: Evidence from pension accounting," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 1261-1306, September.
    15. Comprix, Joseph & Muller, Karl A., 2011. "Pension plan accounting estimates and the freezing of defined benefit pension plans," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 115-133.
    16. Mark Billings & Christopher O’Brien & Margaret Woods & Dev Vencappa, 2017. "Discretion in accounting for pensions under IAS 19: using the ‘magic telescope’?," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(2), pages 123-143, February.
    17. Martin Feldstein & Randall Morck, 1983. "Pension Funding Decisions, Interest Rate Assumptions, and Share Prices," NBER Chapters, in: Financial Aspects of the United States Pension System, pages 177-210, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Michael Kisser & John Kiff & Mauricio Soto, 2017. "Do Managers of U.S. Defined Benefit Pension Plan Sponsors Use Regulatory Freedom Strategically?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(5), pages 1213-1255, December.
    19. Frank S. Skinner & Michalis Ioannides, 2005. ""FRS17" and the Sterling Double A Corporate Yield Curve," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(5-6), pages 1141-1169.
    20. Bartram, Söhnke M., 2018. "In good times and in bad: Defined-benefit pensions and corporate financial policy," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 331-351.
    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. Tobias Witter & Thorsten Sellhorn & Jens Müller & Vicky Kiosse, 2022. "Balance sheet smoothing," Berlin School of Economics Discussion Papers 0006, Berlin School of Economics.
    2. 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.
    3. Kusano, Masaki, 2023. "Does recognition versus disclosure of pension liabilities affect credit ratings? Evidence from Japan," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    4. Luca Larcher & Francis Breedon, 2020. "Discounting and the market valuation of defined benefit pensions," Working Papers 932, Queen Mary University of London, School of Economics and Finance.
    5. Denise A. Jones, 2013. "Changes in the Funded Status of Retirement Plans after the Adoption of SFAS No. 158: Economic Improvement or Balance Sheet Management," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(3), pages 1099-1132, September.
    6. James P. Naughton, 2019. "Regulatory oversight and trade-offs in earnings management: evidence from pension accounting," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 456-490, June.
    7. Denise A. Jones, 2014. "When Do Companies Fund Their Defined Benefit Pension Plans?," Accounting & Taxation, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 6(1), pages 13-23.
    8. 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.
    9. Divya Anantharaman, 2017. "The role of specialists in financial reporting: Evidence from pension accounting," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 1261-1306, September.
    10. Choy, Helen & Lin, Juichia & Officer, Micah S., 2014. "Does freezing a defined benefit pension plan affect firm risk?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(1), pages 1-21.
    11. Fried, Abraham & Davis-Friday, Paquita & Davis, Harry Z., 2014. "The impact of duration on management's discount rate choice," Research in Accounting Regulation, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 217-221.
    12. Zhao, Zucheng & Sutcliffe, Charles, 2024. "Why are pension schemes frozen, and how does a freeze affect the Employer's risk?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    13. Jullavut Kittiakaraskun & Yiuman Tse & George H.K. Wang, 2011. "The Impact of Trading Activity by Trader Types on Asymmetric Volatility in Nasdaq-100 Index Futures," Working Papers 0021, College of Business, University of Texas at San Antonio.
    14. Masaki KUSANO, 2022. "Recognition versus Disclosure and Managerial Discretion: Evidence from Japanese Pension Accounting," Discussion papers e-22-008, Graduate School of Economics , Kyoto University.
    15. Douglas Cumming & Fanyu Lu & Limin Xu & Chia-Feng (Jeffrey) Yu, 2024. "Are Companies Offloading Risk onto Employees in Times of Uncertainty? Insights from Corporate Pension Plans," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 195(3), pages 579-598, December.
    16. Fahad, Nafiz & Ma, Nelson & Scott, Tom, 2020. "The consequences of discount rate selection for defined benefit liabilities," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(1).
    17. Brian Silverstein, 2021. "Defined benefit pension de‐risking and corporate risk‐taking," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 50(4), pages 1085-1111, December.
    18. Li, Zezeng & Kara, Alper, 2022. "Pension de-risking choice and firm risk: Traditional versus innovative strategies," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    19. Michael Kisser & John Kiff & Mauricio Soto, 2017. "Do Managers of U.S. Defined Benefit Pension Plan Sponsors Use Regulatory Freedom Strategically?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(5), pages 1213-1255, December.
    20. Shaw, Kenneth W. & Whitworth, James D., 2022. "Client importance and unconditional conservatism in complex accounting estimates," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).

    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:bla:jbfnac:v:50:y:2023:i:7-8:p:1101-1127. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0306-686X .

    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.