Pension assets as an investment in economic growth: The case of post-socialist countries and Ukraine

Post-socialist governments are looking for the best options to implement a fully funded pension system along with a pay-as-you-earn pension scheme. The paper aims to establish the impact of pension assets on economic growth using the example of post-socialist countries (Hungary, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Poland, and the Czech Republic). The use of methods of correlation and regression analysis allows determining the type of dependence (linear, exponential, gradual, and logarithmic) of countries’ economic growth indicators on pension assets and patterns for their investment (deposits, securities of public and private sectors). The obtained economic growth indicators of the studied post-socialist countries show a strong logarithmic dependence on the size of pension assets: Gross fixed capital formation depends on changes in the pension asset amount by 76.44% and GDP by 71.01%. The economic growth of the studied post-socialist countries is most significantly influenced by pension assets invested in deposits. Investing pension savings in public and private sector securities is less effective. The proved provisions determine the expediency of moving from the predominant pay-as-you-earn pension scheme to the predominant fully funded pension system for Ukraine. Such a transformation requires a stable and efficient construction of the country’s banking system, a developed policy for reforming the pension system while considering the criteria of the internal demographic, social, and financial situation.

Effectiveness of investment activities of managers in the mandatory pension insurance system

This article examines reasons for the low efficiency of investment activity by pension asset managers, and pension investment rules are formulated. These rules are based on the Asset Allocation strategy, taking into account the long-term pension investments and the life-cycle investment strategy. All pension portfolios of Russiаn managers have weak diversification by asset classes, a high share of fixed income financial instruments, and a mismatch of the portfolio structure with the risk profile of the beneficiary. The pension industry has high costs. We evaluated the real efficiency of investment activity by pension asset managers according to the classical theory of investments, and compared it with the risk-return benchmarks of the Russian financial market. The real cumulative return by pension asset managers is negative for the period 2008–2018. At the same time, the Russian financial market provided opportunities for real growth of pension savings. Bank deposits allowed to defend capital from depreciation. Modeling of index pension portfolios (conservative, balanced, and aggressive) in the Russian financial market, according to pension investment rules, showed a positive impact on investment management efficiency of regular rebalancing of the portfolio containing stocks. The management of index pension portfolios by the proposed rules protect pension savings against inflation. Pension asset managers improve the investment policy efficiency following the pension investment rules.

Disclosure of pension asset allocation and expected rate of return management

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the expected rate of return (ERR) management is related to disclosure of pension asset allocation. FAS 132R(1), which requires firms to disaggregate the detailed categories of pension asset allocation, provides a natural experiment setting for investigating the effect of enhanced transparency on firm behavior. Design/methodology/approach The authors focus on the variation of voluntary disclosure and its effect on ERR management under the two different reporting regimes. The authors measure the variation of voluntary disclosure of the pension asset allocations in the pre-period of FAS 132R(1), by using the self-constructed disclosure score. Findings First, firms create flexibility in their choice of ERR through opaque disclosure of pension asset allocation. Next, firms with poor disclosures are more likely to adjust ERR downward when accounting standards require greater transparency, implying that, for firms with poor disclosures, mandated transparency in pension asset allocation plays a vital role in reducing the ERR management. Research limitations/implications The authors directly illustrate the impact of FAS 132R(1) on ERR management. The authors find that the impact of mandated transparency is not uniform across firms. Next, this study highlights the importance of disclosure in restricting managers’ earnings management motivation. Originality/value The authors hand collect the asset allocations under pre-FAS 132R(1) period from the 10-K pension footnotes for all S&P 500 firms, which allows the authors to identify the disclosure variation amongst the firms. Based on the variation of disclosure, the authors construct the ordinal measure of disclosure scores on which the testing indicator variables are built.

Expected Benefit Payments and Asset Allocation in Defined Benefit Plans Post-SFAS 132(R)

SYNOPSIS We contribute to the literature examining defined benefit pension plan asset allocation in the post-SFAS 132(R) reporting environment. SFAS 132(R) requires firms to disclose the expected annual pension benefit payments, thus providing a direct way to measure pension plan payout horizon. Controlling for previously documented determinants of pension asset allocation, we find evidence that a payout horizon measure constructed from SFAS 132(R) disclosures is associated with the firm's pension investment decisions. Specifically, we document that firms with a greater proportion of pension obligations due in the short horizon allocate a smaller portion of their plan assets to equity investments. Additionally, we provide evidence that our proposed measure explains asset allocation over and above previously used proxies representing plan horizon, confirming the usefulness of the 132(R) mandated disclosures.