Determinants of Defined-Contribution Japanese Corporate Pension Coverage

2001年日本国会通过了《企业年金法》，在日本企业年金制度中首次引入了自愿性固定缴款（DC）年金制度。本文的动机是评估日本企业采用DC计划的初始决策的实证决定因素。解释变量我们检查是一个公司的员工的数量大小,b)累积在现有的养老金资产固定收益(DB)计划,c)的程度和患病率公司' s现有DS计划,d)公司的杠杆(债务/资产比率)在其资本结构,e)公司的盈利能力,f)平均工资由公司支付,g)工会化的程度,h)工人的平均年龄,i)的工作流动率公司所属的行业。我们采用logit模型进行估计，在这些变量的基础上评估初始采用的概率。主要发现是，采用固定缴费计划的可能性随着企业规模的增加、企业盈利能力的增加、每位员工累积的现有固定缴费养老金金额以及企业的债务/资产比率的增加而增加。此外，采用固定缴款计划的可能性随着现有固定缴款计划资金不足的增加以及员工平均年龄的增加而下降。我们发现，提供新的DC计划的主要是拥有大量累积DB义务的大型盈利公司，这与美国公司的DC养老金发生率形成鲜明对比。

The passage of the 2001 Corporate Pension Legislations in the Japanese Diet (Parliament) has introduced voluntary defined contribution (DC) pension plans for the first time in the Japanese corporate pension system.The paper is motivated to assess the empirical determinants of the initial decision by Japanese corporations to adopt DC plan. The explanatory variables we examine are a)the firm size in terms of the number of employees, b)cumulative pension assets in the existing defined benefit (DB) plans, c)the extent of under-funding of the firm' s existing DS plans, d)the firm' s leverage (debt/asset ratio) in its capital structure, e)profitability of the firm, f)average wages paid by the firm, g)the extent of unionization, h)the average age of workers, and i)the job turnover rate of the industry to which the firm belongs. We employ the logit model for the estimation, assessing the probability of the initial adoption on the basis of these variables. The key findings are that the likelihood of adopting DC plan increases with an increase in the firm size, as well as with an increase in the profitability of the firm, the amount of existing DB pension benefits accumulated per employee, and the firm' s debt/asset ratio. In addition, the likelihood of adopting DC plan declines with an increase in under-funding of the existing DB plan, as well as with an increase in the average age of employees. We find that it is mainly large, profitable corporations with substantial accumulated DB obligations that are offering new DC plans, in sharp contrast to the American corporate incidence of DC pension.