Discounting and the market valuation of defined benefit pensions

Luca Larcher and Francis Breedon
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Luca Larcher: Queen Mary University of London

No 932, Working Papers from Queen Mary University of London, School of Economics and Finance

Abstract: We investigate how defined benefit pension schemes of FTSE firms are valued by the equity market, focusing on how future liabilities are discounted (since UK data allows us to estimate the duration of pension liabilities fairly accurately). We find that equity market valuation is consistent with discounting without allowing for credit risk. This differs from the approach used in published accounts for which IAS 19 (and SFAS No. 158, its US equivalent) allows for discounting with a corporate bond yield. The difference is signficant, as credit risk free discounting would decrease the reported value of FTSE 100 firms by about 7%.

Keywords: Defined benefit pensions; IAS 19; Valuation; UK companies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G32 M41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-09-15
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:qmw:qmwecw:932

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