Abstract (EN)

The American pension funds system reinforces the sensibility of the American economy to financial markets fluctuations. Market risk is supported by companies as concerns defined benefits funds (DB) and by households as regards defined contributions plans (DC). DC funds are often over-invested in shares of their own company. DB funds are currently underfunded. Our calculations suggest that a 50bp fall in long term interest rates may worsen the net wealth of private DB funds by around 90 billion $. The Pension Funding Equity Act may substantially lessen the macroeconomic risk stemming from these financial problems. By raising the regulatory actualization rate applied to future pension payments by DB funds, it could help resolving underfunding in the end of 2004 under reasonable assumptions as regards financial markets. Moreover, the burden on trend labor productivity gains associated with the refunding of DB funds in the 5 forthcoming years could also be substantially slashed.