Currently, there is no integrating theory which specifies why governmental pension plans are so significantly underfunded. In this study, we test several hypotheses concerning such underfunding in a cross-sectional regression model for state-administered pension plans. The conceptual model...

We evaluate the hypothesis that client monitoring is priced in the seasoned governmental bond market above and beyond other independent measures of local administration quality and the Big 8/Non-Big 8 dichotomy. Our results are generally consistent with the hypothesis

Considerable evidence exists that governmental accounting numbers are related empirically to bond risk and return measures. However, prior research does not preclude the possibility that accounting numbers merely reflect unobserved factors such as economic and political attributes impounded in...