Finance and Occupational Pensions

Occupational pensions are major participants in§global financial markets with assets of well over $30 trillion, representing§more than 40% of the assets of institutional investors. Some occupational§pension funds control assets of over $400 billion, and the largest 300§occupational pension funds each have average assets of over $50 billion. The§assets of UK pension funds are equivalent to UK GDP, and US pension fund assets§are 83% of US GDP. These statistics highlight the importance of pension funds§as major players in financial markets, and the need to understand the behaviour§of these large institutional investors. Occupational pensions also play an§important, but neglected, role in corporate finance. For example, US company§pension schemes account for over 60% of company market value, and yet they are§often ignored when analysing companies.§§This book is based on the substantial body of§evidence available from around the world on a topic that has become§increasingly important and controversial in recent years. Written for§practitioners, students and academics, this book brings together and§systematizes a very large international literature from financial economists,§actuaries, practitioners, professional organizations, official documents and§reports. The underlying focus is the application of the principles of financial§economics to occupational pensions, including the work of Nobel laureates such as Merton, Markowitz,§Modigliani, Miller and Sharpe, as well as Black.§§This book will give readers an up-to-date§understanding of occupational pensions, the economic issues they face, and some§suggestions of how these issues can be tackled. The first section explains the§operation of defined benefit and defined contribution pensions, along with some§descriptive statistics. The second section covers selected aspects of§occupational pensions. The focus of these first two sections is on the economic§and financial aspects of pensions, accompanied by some basic information on how§they operate. This is followed by three further sections that analyse the§investment of pension funds, the corporate finance implications of firms§providing pensions for their employees, and annuities.§