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Academic Background

B.Sc., Business Administration (First Class Honors),
University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka
M.B.A., University of New Hampshire
Ph.D., Finance, University of Houston
FCA, Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of
Sri Lanka
CFA, CFA Institute

Research Specialties

• International finance and emerging capital markets
• Asset Pricing, market efficiency, and corporate finance
• Stock returns, volatility and investor behavior

Current Research

• Initial public offerings and trading patterns of investors
• Share price behavior surrounding ex-dividend day and trades 
• Trading behavior of individual and institutional investors
• Frontier stock markets – risks and returns

Recent Research

• “The Relation between Equity Flows and Stock Returns: Evidence from Investor Types in the Sri Lankan Stock Market,” Working Paper, University of St. Thomas, 2007.
• “Portfolio performance evaluation,” with Tanweer Hasan, In The Encyclopedia of Finance, C. F. Lee, Editor, Springer, pp. 617-622, 2005.
• “Efficiency of the Sri Lankan stock market,” Sri Lankan Journal of Business Economics, 1, pp. 1-22, 2004.
• “Altman’s Z-Score models of predicting corporate distress: Evidence from the emerging Sri Lankan stock market,” with Tanweer Hasan, The Journal of the Academy of Finance, 1, pp. 119-125, 2003.
• “Stock markets in the Russian Federation, transitional Europe and the United States: Profitability vs. pessimism / Optimism,” with Tanweer Hasan, and Munzoor Shaikh, Academy of Finance Proceedings, pp. 1-9, 2003.
• “Dividend announcements, firm size and dividend growth in the Sri Lankan stock market,” with D. B. P. H. Dissabandara, Sri Lankan Journal of Management, 3&4, pp. 228-245, 2002.
• “Short-term interest rates and expected stock returns in Sri Lanka,” with Tanweer Hasan, Advances in Pacific Basin Financial Markets, 6, pp. 337-348, 2000.

Books

• Securities Market in Sri Lanka. Fourth Edition (Colombo, Sri Lanka: Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka, 2005).
• “Sri Lankan Corporate Bond Market,” (Nawala, Sri Lanka: 2000)

Major Advisory Work

• Asian Development Bank, Capital market development, 2005- to-date
• World Bank, Pension portfolio management, 1999-2000
• USAID, Financial market development, 1995-2000
• Japan International Cooperation Agency, Development projects, 1997-1999
• Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Pubic debt, investment analysis, and pension portfolio management, 1997-2005
• Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka, Capital market development, securities regulation, and training, 1997-1999
• Colombo Stock Exchange, Capital Market Development and Training, 1997-2000.
• Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka, Investment Banking, Corporate Finance, Capital Market Research and Stock Brokering, 1994-2000

Significant Scholarly Honors

• Full Professor of Finance (on Merit), University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka, 2000.
• Outstanding postdoctoral research award in economics 1975-1999, University Grants Commission of Sri Lanka, 2000.
• Award for outstanding contribution to the Sri Lankan science, Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science, 1998.
• Dean's award for academic excellence, University of Houston, 1993.
• Melcher award for teaching excellence by a doctoral candidate, University of Houston, 1991.
• Sri Lanka Presidential Scholarship Award, 1987-1989.

Website

http://personal3.stthomas.edu/lpsamarakoon