We use ex ante measures of cost of equity to examine: 1) whether the market assimilates off-balance sheet pension liabilities in assessing cost of equity, 2) whether off-balance sheet pension liabilities explain cost of equity in a similar manner as those reported on the balance sheet, and 3) the incremental explanatory power of Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS) 158 (FASB 2006) on cost of equity. We find that off-balance sheet pension liabilities are significantly positively associated with ex ante cost of equity in the pre- and post-SFAS 158 periods, suggesting that investors incorporate off-balance sheet pension liabilities in assessing cost of equity. However, recognized pension liabilities are more associated with cost of equity than off-balance sheet pension liabilities in both pre- and post-SFAS 158 periods. Furthermore, we find that the implementation of SFAS 158 significantly increases the explanatory power of previously disclosed pension liabilities (e.g., unrecognized prior service costs) on cost of equity, suggesting that SFAS 158 is effective in improving the cost-of-equity implications of pension liabilities.

我们使用事前成本计量方法来检验：1）市场是否在评估权益成本时将表外养老金负债同化； 2）表外养老金负债是否以与报告的相似的方式解释了权益成本。 3）财务会计准则声明（SFAS）158（FASB 2006）对股本成本的递增解释权。我们发现表外养老金负债与事前显着正相关SFAS 158之前和之后的股权成本，表明投资者将表外养老金负债纳入评估股权成本。但是，在SFAS 158之前和之后的期间，已确认的养老金负债与权益成本的关系要比表外的养老金负债更大。此外，我们发现SFAS 158的实施显着提高了先前披露的养老金负债对权益成本的解释能力（例如，未确认的先前服务成本），这表明SFAS 158可有效改善养老金的股本成本影响负债。