Corporate pension plans and investment choices: bargaining or conforming?
This paper investigates the impacts of defined-benefit (DB) pension plans on the corporate investment choices between diversifying and non-diversifying investments. We find a firm’s DB plan coverage is negatively associated with its propensity of making a major investment. Subject to a major investm...
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| Format: | Article |
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Elsevier
2018
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47325/ |
| _version_ | 1848797517467090944 |
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| author | Duygun, Meryem Huang, Bihong Qian, Xiaolin Tam, Lewis H.K. |
| author_facet | Duygun, Meryem Huang, Bihong Qian, Xiaolin Tam, Lewis H.K. |
| author_sort | Duygun, Meryem |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | This paper investigates the impacts of defined-benefit (DB) pension plans on the corporate investment choices between diversifying and non-diversifying investments. We find a firm’s DB plan coverage is negatively associated with its propensity of making a major investment. Subject to a major investment decision, however, the firms with higher DB plan coverage is more likely to diversify, i.e. acquire firms abroad or in other industries, rather than invest in fixed assets or make non-diversifying (i.e. domestic horizontal) acquisitions. Moreover, in diversifying acquisitions, they are more likely to invest in countries or industries with strongly unionized workforce. Further analysis on post-investment performance shows that firms with higher DB plan coverage experience a greater improvement in operating profitability after a diversifying acquisition, and the improvement mainly comes from a higher asset turnover rather than cost reduction. On the other hand, DB plan sponsoring firms experience a decline in profitability after a large capital expenditure or a non-diversifying acquisition. We propose both bargaining motive and conforming motive can explain these results. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:05:08Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-47325 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:05:08Z |
| publishDate | 2018 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-473252020-05-04T19:50:54Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47325/ Corporate pension plans and investment choices: bargaining or conforming? Duygun, Meryem Huang, Bihong Qian, Xiaolin Tam, Lewis H.K. This paper investigates the impacts of defined-benefit (DB) pension plans on the corporate investment choices between diversifying and non-diversifying investments. We find a firm’s DB plan coverage is negatively associated with its propensity of making a major investment. Subject to a major investment decision, however, the firms with higher DB plan coverage is more likely to diversify, i.e. acquire firms abroad or in other industries, rather than invest in fixed assets or make non-diversifying (i.e. domestic horizontal) acquisitions. Moreover, in diversifying acquisitions, they are more likely to invest in countries or industries with strongly unionized workforce. Further analysis on post-investment performance shows that firms with higher DB plan coverage experience a greater improvement in operating profitability after a diversifying acquisition, and the improvement mainly comes from a higher asset turnover rather than cost reduction. On the other hand, DB plan sponsoring firms experience a decline in profitability after a large capital expenditure or a non-diversifying acquisition. We propose both bargaining motive and conforming motive can explain these results. Elsevier 2018-06 Article PeerReviewed Duygun, Meryem, Huang, Bihong, Qian, Xiaolin and Tam, Lewis H.K. (2018) Corporate pension plans and investment choices: bargaining or conforming? Journal of Corporate Finance, 50 . pp. 519-537. ISSN 0929-1199 Defined-benefit pension; DB plan coverage; bargaining power; Conforming motive; Diversifying acquisitions http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0929119917305989 doi:10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2017.10.005 doi:10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2017.10.005 |
| spellingShingle | Defined-benefit pension; DB plan coverage; bargaining power; Conforming motive; Diversifying acquisitions Duygun, Meryem Huang, Bihong Qian, Xiaolin Tam, Lewis H.K. Corporate pension plans and investment choices: bargaining or conforming? |
| title | Corporate pension plans and investment choices: bargaining or conforming? |
| title_full | Corporate pension plans and investment choices: bargaining or conforming? |
| title_fullStr | Corporate pension plans and investment choices: bargaining or conforming? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Corporate pension plans and investment choices: bargaining or conforming? |
| title_short | Corporate pension plans and investment choices: bargaining or conforming? |
| title_sort | corporate pension plans and investment choices: bargaining or conforming? |
| topic | Defined-benefit pension; DB plan coverage; bargaining power; Conforming motive; Diversifying acquisitions |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47325/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47325/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47325/ |