This assignment concerns a topic on empirical research of accounting and finance. You are required to answer ALL of the research questions in that topic using empirical analysis. You will be provided with different sets of data for Topic 2: Pension fund investment. The companies in the dataset and the topic will be the main focus of your analyses.
Pension fund investment decisions; Research questions:
(1) To what extent can companies’ financial characteristics determine pension asset allocations?
•Question (1) must be answered by independently selecting 5 or more financial ratios. Examples and data collection methods will be provided as the course progresses.
2(2) Can these models based upon accounting and finance data be improved by including corporate governance information?
•In order to answer research Question (2) you will be provided with a dataset containing various corporate governance variables to use as you feel necessary.
(3) Given the timeframe of your analyses, what evidence can you provide as to the main cause(s) for companies change their pension asset allocations?
Minimum requirement to pass this module is that students should be able to determine if they are able to identify key financial characteristics of companies (at least 5 of your choice). Students should demonstrate the
ability to include descriptive analysis and regression analysis in order to answer the questions. Students should be able to comment on the results of the initial multivariate model and refer to the prior literature. The initial multivariate model must be compared in terms of accuracy to a further model which incorporates corporate governance measures in order to answer Question 2.
Please submit your report in a single document. Create an appendix section at the end which contains all the Stata code needed to reproduce your results (you do not need to include the code that failed to run, but just the cleaned-up version. Your code has to work when the module leader
run it in the relevant software). Failure to include the Stata code means that the coursework will be marked incomplete.
Structure:
Using the tools provided, you are required to conduct independent research to investigate and answer the research questions. Your final written document should adhere to the following structure:
•Abstract
•Brief Introduction with mini–Literature Review
•Methodology
•Data
•Results
•Conclusion
•References
•Appendices
Reading list;
Anantharaman, D., & Lee, Y. G. (2014). Managerial risk taking incentives and corporate pension policy. Journal of Financial Economics, 111(2), 328
-351.
Phan, H. V., & Hegde, S. P. (2013). Corporate governance and risk taking in pension plans: Evidence from defined benefit asset allocations. Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, 48(3), 919-946.
mir, E., Guan, Y., & Oswald, D. (2010). The effect of pension accounting on corporate pension asset allocation. Review of Accounting Studies, 15(2), 345-366.
–An, H., Lee, Y. W., & Zhang, T. (2014). Do corporations manage earnings to meet/exceed analyst forecasts? Evidence from pension plan assumption changes.Review of Accounting Studies, 19(2), 698-735.
Pages 8 Double spaced(2200 words)
Style and sources APA7, 4 sources
Free extras
Outline
Title page
Bibliography / Reference page
