Cash Balance Pension Plan Conversions: An Analysis Of Motivations And Pension Costs

In recent years, many corporations have replaced their traditional defined benefit (DB) pension plans with cash balance (CB) plans, which share many of the characteristics of defined contribution plans. This study provides empirical evidence on the characteristics of CB converters and the behavior of pension costs and obligations pre- and post-conversion. We find that CB converters are larger than firms that retain traditional DB plans as well as those that terminate DB plans. They are less profitable than the former, but more profitable than the latter. CB conversions are not associated with proxies for greater labor mobility (e.g., firm-specific employee turnover rate). They are associated with a workforce that is closer to retirement, on average, lending credence to the breach of implicit contract rather than the labor market hypothesis as a motivator of CB conversions. Consistent with this intuition, we document that CB converters recognize a reduction of unrecognized prior service costs in the year of conversion, consistent with a negative plan amendment. Unlike pre-conversion, pension costs and obligations are significantly lower for CB firms post-conversion than for a matched sample of firms retaining traditional DB plans. CB conversions are more popular than DB plan terminations among firms with overfunded pension plans in periods when expected return on plan assets is likely to be high, with a consequent positive effect on reported income

A Preliminary Investigation of the Impact of Forest Management Practices on Microhabitat Abiotic Variables in the Southern Appalachian Mountains

Existing research has demonstrated that forest management practices (e.g., clear-cutting, planting) can dramatically impact animal communities. This is particularly the case with amphibian populations due to their sensitivity to microhabitat alterations. However, few studies have investigated the manner by which forest management practices impact the abiotic variables most relevant to healthy amphibian populations. In this study we investigated how spatially localized forest management practices (i.e., at the scale of hundreds of meters) alter the microhabitat variables that have been shown important to amphibian population distributions. We assessed the relationship between forest composition and microhabitat abiotic variables across three localities with differing management histories in Lumpkin County, Georgia. Site A consisted solely of systematically distributed planted pines, Site B was composed of planted pine and mixed hardwoods, and Site C contained only mixed hardwoods. To quantitatively assess these differences in forest composition, we conducted a point-centered quarter tree survey at each locality and measured ambient temperature, soil temperature, air humidity, light intensity, and soil pH daily over a 60-day period. Our results indicate that soil moisture and pH differ across these localities. These data suggest that even at highly resolved spatial scales, forest management practices can dramatically impact the suitability of microhabitats for amphibian populations. This localized impact should be considered more broadly, but especially in regions with particularly dense amphibian population

Laura Barr Lougee Correspondence

Entries include biographical newspaper clippings with photographic images of Barr and her husband and a typed letter on personal stationery