This chapter describes a proposed new defined benefit (DB) pension design known as a portfolio pension plan. This design falls within a larger category of so-called 'shared risk' pension plans. In the United States, shared risk pension plans address a need created by the limitations of existing...

This paper explores whether social interactions influence investors' decisions to hold equity and allocate their portfolios, in the context of defined contribution retirement savings accounts. Using a rich dataset of 401(k) plans, we examine social interaction effects within workplaces. We...

We show that participants are influenced by their coworkers when they make equity investment decisions. Using a rich dataset of 401(k) plans, we find that individuals are likely to increase (decrease) their risky share when they have lower (higher) equity exposure than their coworkers in the...

Defined-benefit (DB) pension funds, often underfunded, rely on the legal obligation of their sponsor to secure pension rights for individuals. The sponsor guarantee being risky, its riskiness must be hedged to secure the pension promises. This appendix details the implementation of the extended...

A data driven Neural Network (NN) optimization framework is proposed to determine optimal asset allocation during the accumulation phase of a defined contribution pension scheme. In contrast to parametric model based solutions computed by a partial differential equation approach, the proposed...

We derive the optimal corporate pension portfolio policy in a consolidated setting in the presence of PBGC insurance. The paper's result formalizes the forces of risk shifting and risk management that shape the form of the corporate pension portfolio. As in Rauh (2009), the risk-shifting and...

Failure to correct for pension risk leads to upward-biased discount rate estimates in firms with pension risk exposure. The result is a negative and economically significant relation between pension risk and corporate investment. The effect is confined to investment decisions that require...