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...

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...

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...

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...

Many countries with generous social insurance are currently forced to cut back or modify their systems. At the same time many developing countries lack social insurance for large segments of the population. Health accounts may offer a way of implementing health insurance that keeps a lid on...

One of the oldest and most contentious debates in welfare economics and social security provision revolves around means testing. This paper reviews the history and issues in the debate about means tested welfare benefits, with particular emphasis on UK experience

In this paper, we have looked at the choice of performance targets using a unique panel database on UK CEO executive option performance targets. Using this data on performance targets along with governance data and financial data for company accounts with year ends from 2001 to 2003, we find...

The large declines in equity markets observed in the United Kingdom and the United States in 2001-2002 had a significant impact on the retirement funds of many individuals approaching retirement. This decline in markets and savings offers a natural experiment from which we examine how...

This paper analyses income drawdown programs where individuals choose a starting level of income and consumption growth levels so that they are certain to run out of money at some age. We compare the consumption in such a drawdown program with the level of consumption from an annuity. Our...