Using accounting data from just over 100 Italian companies we construct various measures of exposure to severance pay. We then examine how these measures are related to subsequent market measures of risk. We find little relationship between corporate Italian severance pay exposure and either...

This paper considers the extensive literature from the US which has developed spending rules for endowments and foundations, and attempts to consider the impact of applying such rules to European foundations under a range of scenarios. By undertaking a broad-ranging investigation of this nature...

The paper explores the relationship between UK property returns and inflation in the short, medium and long-term to assess the claim that real estate is an effective inflation hedge. Although a perfect one-one relationship with inflation is not found, the paper unveiled some evidence of a...

The paper analyses the behaviour of the equity premium in the UK. We find that lagged dividend ratios, bill returns and time series factors all play a statistically significant role in explaining the historical variation of the equity premium. Our analysis finds that the conditional variance of...

The relationship between salary linked liabilities and asset prices is at the heart of the debate about risk management for pension funds. a positive realtionship between active liabilities and equity returns will increase the attractiveness of holding equity in a pension fund portfolio. This...

This paper explores portfolio allocation when individuals target the mean and variance of consumption growth. These consumption targets lead to an optimal mix of equity which depends on the equity risk premium, the rate of return on riskless bonds, the desired rate of escalation of consumption...

Private pension laws in Australia concentrate considerable power and discretion in trustees. This paper reviews results from a detailed survey in 2004 of super trustees at the top 200 funds in Australia as well as an earlier pilot survey. The survey results indicate that super trustees emphasise...

A major change in the training of actuaries in the period since the 1990s has been the introduction of the concepts underlying financial economics into the mainstream of actuarial coursework. Yet in this same period, three parallel developments have taken place - changes in the traditional role...

A special feature of UK executive pay is the heavy reliance on performance conditions for executive share options. Using data compiled from 2002-2003 Remuneration Committee reports of 130 of Britain's largest companies as well as linked data on analyst earnings forecasts and realised earnings,...

Because a significant portion of corporate financing is implicitly handled through pension vehicles, pensions are a quite important part of corporate finance and corporate financial policy. Yet many aspects of the interaction between pensions and corporate finance are imperfectly understood at...