This paper studies the strategic asset allocation for an investor with risky liabilities which are subject to inflation and real interest rate risk and who invests in stocks, government bonds, corporate bonds, T-bills, listed real estate, commodities and hedge funds. Using a vector autoregression for returns, liabilities and macro-economic state variables the paper explores the intertemporal covariance structure of assets and liabilities. We find horizon effects in time diversification, risk diversification, inflation hedge and real interest rate qualities. The covariance structure gives insights into which asset classes have a term structure of risk that is different from that of stocks and bonds. The alternative assets classes add value for long-term investors. Differences in strategic portfolios for asset-only and asset-liability investors are due to differences in the global minimum variance and ARTICLE IN PRESS www.elsevier.com/locate/jedc 0165-1889/$ -see front matter r (R.P.M.M. Hoevenaars).liability hedge portfolio. We find that the benefits of long-term investing are larger when there are liabilities. r

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This paper applies contingent claim analysis to value pension contracts for real-life collective pension plans with intergenerational risk sharing and offering DB-like benefits.We rewrite the balance sheet of such a pension fund as an aggregate of embedded generational options. This implies that a pension fund is a zero-sum game in value terms, so any policy change inevitably leads to value transfers between generations. We explore intergenerational value transfers that may arise from a plan redesign or from changes in funding policy and risk sharing rules. We develop a stochastic framework which accounts for time-varying investment opportunities and computes the embedded generational options. Changes in the values of the generational options enable us to evaluate the impact of policy modifications in the pension contract with respect to intergenerational transfers and redistribution. We find that a switch to a less risky asset mix is beneficial to elderly members at the expense of younger members who lose value. A reallocation of risk bearing from a plan with flexible contributions and fixed benefits to a plan with fixed contributions and flexible benefits leads to value redistribution from older plan members to younger ones.

This paper applies contingent claim analysis to value pension contracts for real-life collective pension plans with intergenerational risk sharing and offering DB-like benefits.We rewrite the balance sheet of such a pension fund as an aggregate of embedded generational options. This implies that a pension fund is a zero-sum game in value terms, so any policy change inevitably leads to value transfers between generations. We explore intergenerational value transfers that may arise from a plan redesign or from changes in funding policy and risk sharing rules. We develop a stochastic framework which accounts for time-varying investment opportunities and computes the embedded generational options. Changes in the values of the generational options enable us to evaluate the impact of policy modifications in the pension contract with respect to intergenerational transfers and redistribution. We find that a switch to a less risky asset mix is beneficial to elderly members at the expense of younger members who lose value. A reallocation of risk bearing from a plan with flexible contributions and fixed benefits to a plan with fixed contributions and flexible benefits leads to value redistribution from older plan members to younger ones.

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