In the Spanish stock market and the sample period analyzed, on average, days after a weekend or a holiday present higher returns. Firms could partially make up the price drop on ex-dividend days by scheduling dividend payments after a weekend or a holiday. However, the evidence suggests that...

The aim of this article is twofold: to establish the connection between the ‘Contribution Asset’ (CA) and the ‘Hidden Asset’ (HA) and to determine whether using either of them to compile the Actuarial Balance (AB) sheet in the Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) pension system will provide a reliable...

The survivor dividend, at a specific age, is the portion of participants' credited account balances that is distributed on a birth cohort basis from the account balances of participants who do not survive to retirement. This article develops a model to show whether it would be justified to...

The aim of this paper is twofold: to show the usefulness of automatic balance mechanisms (ABMs) and to explore the issue of introducing an ABM into the Spanish state contributory retirement pension system. With this in mind, we define the concept of the ABM and carry out an analysis of that...

This article aims to quantify the "aggregate subjective economic" risk to which beneficiaries would be exposed if a retirement pension system based on notional account philosophy were introduced. We use scenario generation techniques to make projections of the factors that determine the real...

The aim of this work is twofold, on the one hand, to demonstrate the actuarial imbalance of the Spanish pension system in its current configuration, and on the other, to measure the aggregate economic risk to which the pensioner would be exposed if it were decided to apply ten formulas for the...

This paper will try to explain the “annuities puzzle” in greater depth by introducing the bequest motive, both strategic and altruistic. It will try to determine whether this motive really is a relevant feature influencing the demand for lifetime annuities from married couples. With this aim...

This paper provides the first estimate of the actuarial balance of the Spanish contributory pension system for the old-age contingency, based on official data. The main accounting entries are developed from the principles of double-entry bookkeeping. The novel entry in the balance sheet,...

There are two aims to this paper: firstly, to provide an objective technical assessment of the current situation of the contributory pension system in Spain and its prospects for the future, and secondly, to look at the issues surrounding the introduction of a system of notional defined...