George Athanassakos
Professor of Finance
Ben Graham Chair in Value Investing

Dr. George Athanassakos is a Professor of Finance and the Ben Graham Chair in Value Investing at Richard Ivey School of Business, which he joined in July 2004. He is also the Director of The Ben Graham Centre for Value Investing. Prior to joining Ivey, Dr. Athanassakos spent a number of years at various research-related positions with banking and trust companies in Canada and Greece, and taught at York University and Wilfrid Laurier University, where he was professor of Finance and Founder & Director of Laurier’s Financial Planning Program. Dr. Athanassakos has a BA in Economics and Business Administration from The School of Industrial Studies of Thessalonica, Greece, and an MA in Economics, an MBA and a PhD in Finance from York University.

Dr. Athanassakos has researched extensively the institutional attributes of the Canadian capital markets, the effect institutional trading and analysts’ forecasts have on stock market performance, stock and bond market anomalies and bond and equity valuation issues. He has prepared studies on the Canadian capital markets and industry analyses for Greece and Canada. His cases have been published in Canadian Cases in Financial Accounting, Cases in Hospitality Management and Case Research Journal.

He has offered seminars on traditional valuation and/or value investing valuation to Canadian and US valuator societies, and in Australia, Chile, Colombia, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Finland, Italy, United Kingdom and Greece. Dr. Athanassakos is recipient of teaching awards, such as the Ivey Teaching Innovation Award, and of numerous research grants from University and Government departments, as well as winner of numerous first prize awards for best research papers, including three times winner (1991, 1994, and 2003) of the Toronto Society of Financial Analysts’ Best Research Paper Award Competition. Dr. Athanassakos has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Financial Planners Standards Council of Canada, a member of the Editorial Board of the Canadian Investment Review, a member of the Research Advisory Board of the Canadian Securities Institute and Clarica Financial Services Research Center, and the VP-Membership and President of the Multinational Finance Society. He has also been in the Program Committees of the Eastern Finance Association, Southern Finance Association, European Financial Management Association, Midwest Finance Association, Multinational Finance Association, Northern Finance Association and Southern Finance Association conferences, and served as the Program Chair of the 1999 Multinational Finance conference in Toronto, Ontario and the 1st and 2nd Annual Symposiums on Value Investing in Toronto, Ontario and Crete, Greece, respectively. He is currently a member of the Editorial Board of the European Research Studies Journal and Multinational Finance Journal, a member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Institute of Financial Planners, a member of the Academic Advisory Board of the Financial Planners Standards Council, and a V-P Membership and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Multinational Finance Society.

Dr. Athanassakos has published in numerous journals including Journal of Banking and Finance, Applied Financial Economics, Journal of Business Finance and Accounting, Journal of Financial Research, Financial Analysts’ Journal, Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences, Journal of Economics and Business, Review of Financial Economics, Multinational Finance Journal, Advances in Futures and Options Research and others. His books include Derivatives Fundamentals and Equity Valuation: A Guide to Discounted Cash Flow and Relative Valuation Methods. Dr. Athanassakos has also written articles for the Financial Post and currently writes, as a guest columnist, about investments and economic and financial topics in Canada’s largest daily newspaper, The Globe and Mail.

PROGRAM TEACHING

Finance

RESEARCH/COURSE DEVELOPMENT

Value Investing
Mergers and Acquisitions
Valuation of Financial Securities
Institutional Attributes of the Canadian Capital Markets
Institutional Trading and Stock and Bond Market Performance
Market Anomalies in the Canadian Equity and Bond Markets
Analysts' Forecasts

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

• “Value vs. Growth Stock Returns and the Value Premium: The Canadian Experience 1985-2005”, Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences, Vol. 26, No. 2, March 2009, pp. 109-121.
• “Seasonal Patterns in Canadian Financial Markets and the Impact of Professional Portfolio Rebalancing: Evidence of Profitable Opportunities”, Journal of Financial and Economic Practice, Vol. 9, No. 1, Fall 2008, pp. 73-96.
• “Value-Based Management, EVA and Stock Price Performance in Canada", Management Decision, Vol. 45, No. 7, 2007, pp. 1397-1411.
• “Valuing Internet Ventures”, Journal of Business Valuation and Economic Loss Analysis, Vol. 2, No. 1, Article 2, 2007, pp. 1-15.
• “The Effect of Investment Horizons on Risk, Return and the End of Period Wealth for Major Asset Classes in Canada” (with L. Alles), Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences, Vol. 23, No. 2, June 2006, pp. 138-152.
• "The Relationship Between Short Interest and Stock Returns in the Canadian Market" (with L. Ackert), Journal of Banking and Finance, Vol. 29, 2005, pp. 1729-1749.
• “Analyst Forecast Dispersion and Future Stock Return Volatility” (with M. Kalimipalli), Quarterly Journal of Business and Economics, Vol. 42, Nos. 1&2, Winter/Spring 2004, pp. 57-78.
• “A Simultaneous Equation Analysis of Analysts’ Forecast Bias and Institutional Ownership” (with L. Ackert), Journal of Business Finance and Accounting, September/October 2003, pp. 1017-1041.
• “The Scrutinized-Firm Effect, Portfolio Rebalancing, Stock Return Seasonality and the Pervasiveness of the January Effect in Canada”, Multinational Finance Journal, Vol. 6, No. 1, 2002, pp. 1-27.
• “Visibility, Institutional Preferences and Agency Considerations” (with L. Ackert), Journal of Psychology and Financial Markets, Vol. 2, No. 4, 2001, pp. 201-209.
• “An Empirical Analysis of the Relationship of Bond Yield Spreads and Macro-Economic Factors” (with P. Carayannopoulos), Applied Financial Economics, Vol. 11, 2001, pp. 197-207.
• “Institutional Investors, Analyst Following and the January Anomaly” (with L. Ackert), Journal of Business Finance and Accounting, Vol. 27, Nos. 3-4, April/May 2000, pp. 469-485.
• “Estimating Expected Equity Risk-Premia and the Cost of Equity Using the Bond Plus Risk-Premium Approach: The Canadian Experience,” Multinational Finance Journal, Vol. 1, No. 3, September 1998, pp. 229-254.
• “Seasonality in Canadian Treasury Bond Returns: An Institutional Explanation” (with Y. Tian), Review of Financial Economics, 1998, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 65-86.
• “Firm-Size, Stock Return Seasonality, Temporal Variability of Stock Returns and the Trading Pattern of Individual and Institutional Investors: The Canadian Experience”, Journal of Investing, Vol. 6, No. 3, Fall 1997, pp. 75-86.
• “Prior Uncertainty, Analyst Bias, and Subsequent Abnormal Returns” (with L. Ackert), Journal of Financial Research, Summer 1997, Vol. 20, No. 2, pp. 263-273.
• “Negative Option Values Implicit in Extendable Canadian Treasury Bonds” (with P. Carayannopoulos and Y. Tian), Advances in Futures and Options Research, 1997, Vol. 9, pp. 83-110.
• “The Demand for Long-Term Deposits of a Financial Intermediary: Theory and Evidence” (with R. Waschik), Journal of Economics and Business, 1997, Vol. 49, No. 2, pp. 127-147.
• “Stockholder Wealth Effects of Eurobond Financing: A Canadian Perspective” (with J. Schnabel), Global Finance Journal, Fall/Winter 1996, Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 225-242.
• "Odd-Lot Costs, Taxes and the Ex-Date Price Effects of Stock Dividends: Evidence from the Toronto Stock Exchange” (with B. Smith), Journal of Business Finance and Accounting, September 1996, Vol. 23, pp. 989-1003.
• “Tax Induced Trading Volume Around Ex-Dividend Days Under Different Tax Regimes: The Canadian Experience 1970-1984”, Journal of Business Finance and Accounting, June 1996, Vol. 23, pp. 557-584.
• “On the Application of the Black and Scholes Formula to Valuing Bonds with Embedded Options: The Case of Extendible Bonds”, Applied Financial Economics, 1996, Vol. 6, pp. 37-48.
• “Professional Portfolio Managers and the January Effect: Theory and Evidence” (with J. Schnabel), Review of Financial Economics, 1994, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 79-91.
• “The Day of the Week Anomaly: The Toronto Stock Exchange Experience” (with M. Robinson), Journal of Business Finance and Accounting, September 1994, Vol. 21, pp. 833-856.
• “New Evidence on the Behaviour of Canadian Stock Prices in the Days Surrounding the Ex-Dividend Day” (with D. Fowler), Quarterly Journal of Business and Economics, Autumn 1993, Vol. 32, pp. 26-50.
• “Lease or Buy?: How Recent Tax Changes Have Affected the Decision” (with M. Klatt), Canadian Tax Journal, Vol. 41, No. 3, 1993, pp. 444-453.
• “Portfolio Rebalancing and the January Effect in Canada”, Financial Analysts Journal, November/ December 1992, pp. 67-78.

EXPERIENCE

Professor, School of Business and Economics, Wilfrid Laurier University (1988-2004)
Lecturer/Assistant Professor, Faculty of Administrative Studies, York University (1986-1987)
Visiting Scholar (Australia, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, France, Finland, Italy, United Kingdom and Greece) (1994-2007)
Manager of Economics, Canada Permanent Trust Company (1980-1985)
Financial Consultant

EXPERTISE

Corporate Finance
Valuation of Financial Securities
Value Investing
Stock and Bond Market Anomalies
Mergers and Acquisitions