The Impact of Pensions and Insurance on Global Yield Curves

56 Pages Posted: 16 Jun 2018 Last revised: 13 Nov 2019

See all articles by Robin M. Greenwood

Robin M. Greenwood

Harvard Business School - Finance Unit; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Annette Vissing-Jorgensen

Federal Reserve Board; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Date Written: December 29, 2018

Abstract

We document a strong effect of pension and insurance company (P&I) assets on the long end of the yield curve. Using data from 26 countries, the yield spread between 30-year and 10-year government bond yields is negatively related to the ratio of pension assets (in funded and private pension and life insurance arrangements) to GDP, suggesting that preferred-habitat demand by the P&I sector for long-dated assets drives the long end of the yield curve. We draw on changes in regulations in several European countries between 2008 and 2013 to provide well-identified evidence on the effect of the P&I sector on yields and to show that P&I demand is in part driven by hedging linked to the regulatory discount curve. When regulators reduce the dependence of the regulatory discount curve on a particular security, P&I demand for the security falls and its yield increases. These effects extend beyond long government bonds. Our results suggest that pension discount rules can have a destabilizing impact on bond markets that reverses once rules are changed.

Suggested Citation

Greenwood, Robin M. and Vissing-Jorgensen, Annette, The Impact of Pensions and Insurance on Global Yield Curves (December 29, 2018). Harvard Business School Finance Working Paper No. 18-109, Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper No. 19-59, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3196068 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3196068

Robin M. Greenwood (Contact Author)

Harvard Business School - Finance Unit ( email )

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United States
617-495-6979 (Phone)

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

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Annette Vissing-Jorgensen

Federal Reserve Board ( email )

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Washington, DC 20015
United States

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

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