Dividend Derivatives

Speaker: Professor Michael Brennan, University of California, Los Angeles, and University of Manchester.

Dr. Michael Brennan is the former Irwin and Goldyne Hearsh Professor of Banking and Finance at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Professor of Finance at the London Business School. He is currently Emeritus Professor at UCLA and Distinguished Vising Professor at the University of Manchester. He was educated at Oxford, Pisburgh and MIT. Dr. Brennan’s research interests include asset pricing, corporate finance, and market microstructure. A former President of the American Finance Association, the Society for Financial Studies, and the Western Finance Association, Dr. Brennan has also served as Editor of the Journal of Finance and was the Founding Editor of the Review of Financial Studies. He has also served as a director of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He has received honorary degrees from B.I. (Oslo), Notre Dame University, University of Lancaster, London University, University of St Gallen, University of Stockholm, and the University of Zurich, and was named Financial Engineer of the Year in 2017.

Abstract: This talk discussed how the markets for dividend futures have evolved from Professor Brennan’s 1998 proposal for a market for dividend strips. In particular, the focus was on the informational content of futures prices and he discussed how their prices could be used to infer the fundamental value of the market index, and thus reduce the likelihood that bubbles in stock prices would be allowed to form.

With the kind support of National Bank of Greece in conceding use of the venue.