Pension experts have long conjectured that pension accounting rules encourage firms to invest pension assets in risky asset classes (Zion and Carcache 2003, Gold 2005). The recent passage of IAS 19 Employee Benefits (Revised) (hereafter, “IAS 19R”) marks a fundamental shift in pension...

Corporate defined-benefit (DB) pension sponsors in the US are increasingly on a path of “derisking” – by moving pension assets away from equities and towards fixed-income securities that better match the obligations, or by transferring obligations off their balance sheets entirely, via...

Theory predicts that stockholders of firms with defined-benefit pension plans will engage in risk-shifting by underfunding plans and investing plan assets in risky securities, as their firms approach distress. The empirical evidence so far has, however, been consistent more with risk-management...