Pension Plan Funding and Corporate Debt Ratings

This article empirically examines the relationship between the funding of defined benefit pension plans and corporate debt ratings. The evidence indicates that unfunded pension liabilities reduce debt ratings more than an equivalent amount of excess pension assets increase debt ratings. This asymmetric relationship is consistent with the view that unfunded pension liabilities are corporate liabilities that compete with debt claims, but that there are costs associated with quickly accessing excess pension assets due to the mandated sharing of reverted excess assets.