We introduce a simple model for the pricing of European style options when the underlying dividend process is given by a geometric Brownian motion with Markov-modulated coefficients. It turns out that the corresponding stock process is characterized by both stochastic coefficients and jumps. Transform methods are used to recover option prices. The model is calibrated to market data and the resu...

in which CBS is the usual European call price of an option without dividends. The function φ(S0, S, td) is the log-normal no dividend density function. The integral representation given in (1) does not have an explicit solution. It can be approximated with a numerical integration method, which may be complicated due to the right side boundary at infinity. Another possibility is to solve the Bla...

This paper uncovers an increasing proportion of quoted UK companies omitting cash dividends. Using a large panel of quoted UK companies, we estimate models for the incidence of dividend omissions and cuts as functions of financial characteristics including cash flow, leverage, investment opportunities, investment and company size. These variables account for most of the increase in omission sin...

This paper investigates dividend optimization of an insurance corporation under a more realistic model which takes into consideration refinancing or capital injections. The model follows the compound Poisson framework with credit interest for positive reserve, and debit interest for negative reserve. Ruin occurs when the reserve drops below the critical value. The company controls the dividend ...

This paper deals with optimal investment and redistribution of the free reserves connected to life and pension insurance contracts in form of dividends and bonus. Formulated appropriately this problem can be viewed as a modification of Merton’s problem of optimal consumption and investment with a very particular form of consumption and utility hereof. Both are linked to a finite state Markov ch...

We consider a discrete-time dependent Sparre Andersen risk model which incorporates multiple threshold levels characterizing an insurer’s minimal capital requirement, dividend paying situations, and external financial activities. We focus on the development of a recursive computational procedure to calculate the finite-time ruin probabilities and expected total discounted dividends paid prior t...

A simple model that is commonly used to interpret movements in corporate common stock. price indexes asserts that real stock prices equal the present value of rationally expected or optimally forecasted future real dividends discounted by a constant real discount rate. This valuation model (or variations on it in which the real discount rate is not constant but fairly stable) is often used by e...

This paper presents a dynamic asset-pricing model under asymmetric information. Investors have different information concerning the future growth rate of dividends. They rationally extract information from prices as well as dividends and maximize their expected utility. The model has a closed-form solution to the rational expectations equilibrium. We find that existence of uninformed investors ...

Using 1988 and 1991 data from nonprofit voluntary hospitals in California, we find that the vast majority of nonprofit hospitals provide community dividends in excess of the tax subsidies they receive. However, nearly 20 percent of nonprofit hospitals do not meet this standard. Further, those hospitals that do not meet the standard tend to not meet the standard over time. We recommend more expl...