Pompeu Fabra University

About: Pompeu Fabra University is a education organization based out in Barcelona, Spain. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Gene. The organization has 8093 authors who have published 23570 publications receiving 858431 citations. The organization is also known as: Universitat Pompeu Fabra & UPF.

Pension Plan Funding and Stock Market Efficiency

Abstract: The paper discloses a new asset pricing anomaly. The conventional models fail to correctly price firms with defined benefit pension plans. Mispricing arises as a function of the funding level of the pension plan. Firms with a pension surplus have a premium in returns and, more significantly, firms with a shortfall have a discount. We provide evidence in favor of an explanation that is based on investors’ underreaction to pension plan information. Working under this hypothesis, and exploiting the features of the regulatory environment, we build trading strategies that earn abnormal returns of about 12% annually, adjusted for the exposures to the market, size, book-to-market, and momentum factors. The findings of the paper have relevance for corporate and public policies, and, possibly, for the debate on momentum in assets prices.

Current Accounts in Debtor and Creditor Countries

Abstract: What is the current account response to a transitory income shock? This model predicts that favorable income shocks lead to current account deficits in debtor countries and current account surpluses in creditor countries. Kraay and Ventura reexamine a classic question in international economics: What is the current account response to a transitory income shock such as a temporary improvement in the terms of trade, a transfer from abroad, or unusually high production? To answer this question, they construct a world equilibrium model in which productivity varies across countries and international borrowing and lending take place to exploit good investment opportunities. Despite its conventional ingredients, the model generates the novel prediction that favorable income shocks lead to current account deficits in debtor countries and current account surpluses in creditor countries. Evidence from thirteen OECD countries broadly supports this theoretical prediction. This paper - a product of the Macroeconomics and Growth Division, Development Research Group - is part of a larger effort in the group to study open-economy macroeconomics.

Politics, welfare regimes, and population health: controversies and evidence

Abstract: In recent years, a research area has emerged within social determinants of health that examines the role of politics, expressed as political traditions/parties and welfare state characteristics, on population health. To better understand and synthesise this growing body of evidence, the present literature review, informed by a political economy of health and welfare regimes framework, located 73 empirical and comparative studies on politics and health, meeting our inclusion criteria in three databases: PubMed (1948-), Sociological Abstracts (1953-), and ISI Web of Science (1900-). We identified two major research programmes, welfare regimes and democracy, and two emerging programmes, political tradition and globalisation. Primary findings include: (1) left and egalitarian political traditions on population health are the most salutary, consistent, and substantial; (2) the health impacts of advanced and liberal democracies are also positive and large; (3) welfare regime studies, primarily conducted among wealthy countries, find that social democratic regimes tend to fare best with absolute health outcomes yet consistently in terms of relative health inequalities; and (4) globalisation defined as dependency indicators such as trade, foreign investment, and national debt is negatively associated with population health. We end by discussing epistemological, theoretical, and methodological issues for consideration for future research.