Corporate governance and managerial opportunism: The case of US pension plans

Abstract

Insuring post-retirement benefits to retirees is a joint responsibility of the employees, employers, and the US government. Managers have been shown to manipulate pension plan reports with the intention of maximizing their own gains to the detriment of current and future retirees. External monitoring by regulators and auditors is effective in curbing this opportunistic behavior. This paper extends these findings to examine if effective internal monitoring in the form of strong corporate governance is instrumental in controlling manipulations of pension reports by managers. Empirical tests support the finding that effective corporate governance is inversely associated with the extent of managerial manipulations in pension plan reporting. This result should be of interest to employees, retirees, and the US Government that are trying to insure the future income of senior citizens.