We characterize the joint dynamics of expected returns, stochastic volatility, and prices. In particular, with a given dividend process, one of the processes of the expected return, the stock volatility, or the price-dividend ratio fully determines the other two. For example, the stock volatility determines the expected return and the price-dividend ratio. By parameterizing one, or more, of exp...

In this paper we develop a framework for optimal investment decisions for insurance companies under unhedgeable risk. The perspective that we choose is from an insurance company that tries to maximise the stream of dividends paid to its shareholders. The policy instruments that the company has are the dividend policy and the investment policy. The insurance company can continue to pay dividends...

Using more than 112,000 firm-year observations in 33 countries, we find that two Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, uncertainty avoidance and long-term orientation, remain significant in the determination of dividend policy even after controlling for governance and firm-specific factors. When uncertainty avoidance is high, only firms in countries with stronger investor protection pay more dividend...

This paper investigates the relationship between real earnings growth, real dividend growth, the dividend payout ratio and real stock returns in the US and UK between 1900-2001. We find a positive relationship in the UK between the payout ratio and subsequent real earnings growth contrary to conventional theory, though consistent with the US evidence presented by Arnott and Asness (2003). By co...

The valuation of dividend imputation credits is a currently unresolved issue facing managers, investors and regulators in the Australian market. This thesis builds upon Officer’s (1994) cost of capital, under imputation, framework by seeking to identify the value of imputation credits implied by option prices. It extends the existing imputation literature by using widely traded common stock opt...

State-space or latent-variable models for stock prices specify a process for expected returns and expected and unexpected dividend growth, and then derive dividend yields and returns from a present value relations. They are a useful structure for understanding and interpreting forecasting relations. In this note, I connect state-space representations with their observable counterparts, and VAR/...

We empirically document that stock prices moved inversely with dividend yields during the May, 1997 week when the White House and Congress agreed on a budget accord that included a reduction in the capital gains tax rate. The findings are consistent with equity prices capitalizing expected capital gains taxes. Two scenarios are possible. First, to the extent returns are expected to be taxed as ...

This paper presents a numerical scheme that avoids iterations to solve the nonlinear partial differential equation system for pricing American puts with constant dividend yields. Upon applying a frontfixing technique to the Black-Scholes partial differential equation, a predictor-corrector finite difference scheme is proposed to numerically solve the discrete nonlinear scheme. In the comparison...

Predictability of the return on the market portfolio is a well established fact. This study shows that predictability is a more general phenomenon and it extends to return indices of the U.S. states. At the state level, the consumption trend deviation of Lettau and Ludvigson, and the collateral ratio of Lustig and Van Nieuwerburgh can predict short-term and long-term state-level returns. The st...

Dividend smoothing remains a puzzle for …nancial economists. We present a model in which smoothing of dividends arises as an equilibrium outcome. A manager who cares about the intrinsic value of the …rm as well as its current stock price has to decide how to allocate earnings between investments and dividends. Since the stock price is determined by uninformed investors, the manager has an incen...