The Stock Price Response to Pension Terminations and the Relation of Terminations with Corporate Takeovers

Abstract

i The defined benefit pension plans of U.S. corporations represent a sizable fraction of the wealth in the U.S. economy. A forthcoming book edited by Turner and Beller [32] estimates that defined benefit pension plans had over $1 trillion in assets as of year-end 1987. This compares with the $2.2 trillion in equity on the New York Stock Exchange at year-end 1987. It is not surprising, therefore, that a great deal of research has been devoted to corporate pensions. The early work deals with optimal strategies for investing pension assets [4, 29, 31]. Related analysis by Ippolito [12, 14] examines the role of pension funds in labor contracts and the effect of government regulation on that role. Much of the recent work has focused on pension terminations. Data from the Pension Benefit Guaran-