Corporate pensions in the era of declining birthrate and increasing elderly population

2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K03898
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Management
• Research Institution: Chuo University (2018-2020); Tokyo University of Science (2017)
• Principal Investigator: Sasaki Takafumi 中央大学, 総合政策学部, 教授 (10453078)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: 企業年金 / 企業の社会的責任

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This paper empirically investigates how pension liabilities affect the cost of equity. The impact of this internal borrowing on the cost of equity might be smaller than that of regular debt because employees may prefer to share risk with shareholders and avoid financial distress to protect the value of their human capital. Combined with the fact that that managers have wider discretions over internal liabilities, such risk-sharing aspect of internal liabilities can mitigate the increases in the cost of equity associated with financial leverage. We verify this hypothesis by using the sample of Japanese firms in which firms effectively borrow substantial money from their employees in the form of lump-sum severance payments and underfunded pension plans. We find that the impact of internal borrowing on the cost of equity is substantially smaller than that of regular debt and especially so among firms with long-term employment.

Free Research Field

コーポレートファイナンス

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

少子高齢化時代を迎え、従業員の安定した老後のために確定給付型の退職給付制度が果たしうる役割は大きい。確定給付型の退職給付制度に関する研究でぇあ人事上のメリットとともに、財務上のデメリットが指摘されてきた。本研究の分析結果はソフトな負債という性質を持つ我が国の確定給付型の退職給付制度では財務レバレッジによる株式資本コストの上昇が限定的になることが示された。他方、確定給付型の退職給付制度は研究開発投資などを促す可能性が先行研究で指摘されている。本研究の分析結果と併せて考えると、確定給付型の退職給付制度を持ち続けた方が良い企業は少なくないと考えられる。