摘要：This study presents empirical evidence on the influence of sponsoring companies on thefunding and portfolio allocation of pension funds, an issue on which most extant literature istheoretical. We use a unique microdataset of 550 Dutch defined benefit company pensionfunds and 100 sponsoring firms over 1996-2005 to test the relevance of the main theoreticalhypotheses, the first paper to do so in a comprehensive manner. We find that pension fundshave lower cover ratios when (1) their sponsoring company is highly leveraged, (2) the fund’sreturn on assets is relatively low, and (3) the sponsoring firm is small. Further, defined benefitpension funds are found to invest more in shares when their sponsoring companies are highlyleveraged. These links in general suggest higher risk in the sponsor leads to correspondinglyhigher risk in the fund, and warrant close attention by regulators.
关键词：Pension funds, Sponsoring company, Capital structure
