Martijn Cremers

K.J. Martijn Cremers is the Martin J. Gillen Dean and the Bernard J. Hank Professor of Finance at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. He served as interim dean at Mendoza from July 2018 to June 2019. Prior to joining Notre Dame in 2012, Cremers was a faculty member at the Yale School of Management from 2002 to 2012. His research and teaching areas are investment management, corporate finance, corporate governance, corporate law, business ethics and Catholic social thought.

His co-authored paper “How Active is Your Fund Manager? A New Measure that Predicts Performance” (published in 2009 in the Review of Financial Studies) introduced Active Share, an innovative tool for determining the extent of active mutual fund management by measuring the percentage of stock holdings in a manager's portfolio that differs from the benchmark index. Active Share has become widely used in the financial industry and was incorporated in Morningstar Direct and FactSet.

His recent awards and distinctions include receiving an honorary degree and serving as the 2019 commencement speaker for Holy Cross College at Notre Dame in May 2019.

Cremers has long-standing consulting relationships with various investment managers, including State Street Associates and Touchstone Investments. He serves as an independent director at Ariel Investments, an investment company located in Chicago.

A native of the Netherlands, Cremers earned his master’s degree from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and his Ph.D. from New York University’s Stern School of Business.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Empirical Asset Pricing, Corporate Governance, Investment Management

Education

• Ph D, Stern School of Business, New York University
• MS, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Areas of Expertise

• Investment Management
• Corporate Governance
• Mutual Funds
• Pension Funds
• Executive Compensation

Publications

• "Short-Term Institutions, Analysts Recommendations, and Mispricing: The Role of Higher-Order Beliefs", (With Ankur Pareek, Zacharias Sautner), Journal of Accounting Research, forthcoming - Accepted (awaiting publication)

• "Benchmark Discrepancies and Mutual Fund Performance Evaluation", (With Jon Fulkerson, Tim Riley), Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, forthcoming - Accepted (awaiting publication)

• "Treasury Yield Implied Volatility and Real Activity", (With Matthias Fleckenstein, Priyank Gandhi), Journal of Financial Economics - Accepted (awaiting publication)

• "Challenging the Conventional Wisdom on Active Management: A Review of the Past 20 Years of Academic Literature on Actively Managed Mutual Funds", (With John Fulkerson, Tim Riley), Financial Analysts Journal, 75, 2019

• "Is the Staggered Board Debate Really Settled?", (With Simone Sepe, Saura Masconale), University of Pennsylvania Law Review Online, 2019

• "Short-Term Investors, Long-Term Investments, and Firm Value: Evidence from Russell 2000 Index Inclusions", (With Ankur Pareek, Zacharias Sautner), Management Science, 2019 - Accepted (awaiting publication)

• "Institutional Investors, Corporate Governance and Firm Value", (With Simone Sepe), Seattle University Law Review, 41, 2018

• "Active Share and the Three Pillars of Active Management: Skill, Conviction and Opportunity", Financial Analysts Journal, 73, 2017

• "CEO Pay Redux", (With Saura Masconale, Simone Sepe), Texas Law Review, 96, 2017

• "Pension Fund Asset Allocation and Liability Discount Rates", (With Aleksandar Andoov, Rob Bauer), Review of Financial Studies, 30, 2017

• "Staggered Boards and Long-Term Firm Value, Revisited", (With Lubomir Litov, Simone Sepe), Journal of Financial Economics, 126, 2017

• "Activist Hedge Funds and the Corporation", (With Simone Sepe, Saura Masconale), Washington University Law Review, 94, 2016

• "Commitment and Entrenchment in Corporate Governance", (With Saura Masconale, Simone Sepe), Northwestern Law Review, 110, 2016

• "Do Mutual Fund Investors Get What They Pay For? The Legal Consequences of Closet Index Funds", (With Quinn Curtis), Virginia Law & Business Review, 11, 2016

• "Indexing and Active Fund Management: International Evidence", (With Miguel Ferreira, Pedro Matos, Laura Starks), Journal of Financial Economics, 120, 2016

• "Patient Capital Outperformance: The Investment Skill of High Active Share Managers Who Trade Infrequently", (With Ankur Pareek), Journal of Financial Economics, 122, 2016

• "The Shareholder Value of Empowered Boards", (With Simone Sepe), Stanford Law Review, 68, 2016

• "Uncertainty and Valuations", (With Hongjun Yan), Critical Finance Review, 5, 2016

• "Aggregate Jump and Volatility Risk in the Cross-Section of Stock Returns", (With Michael Halling, David Weinbaum), Journal of Finance, 70, 2015

• "Short-Term Trading and Stock Return Anomalies: Momentum, Reversal and Share Issuance", (With Ankur Pareek), Review of Finance, 19, 2015

• "Does the Market for CEO Talent Explain Controversial CEO Pay Practices?", (With Yaniv Grinstein), Review of Finance, 18, 2014

• "Thirty Years of Shareholder Rights and Firm Valuation", (With Allen Ferrell), Journal of Finance, 69, 2014

• "Should Benchmark Indices Have Alpha? Revisiting Performance Evaluation", (With Antti Petajisto, Eric Zitzewitz), Critical Finance Review, 2, 2013

• "Tiebreaker: Certification and Multiple Ratings", (With Dion Bongaerts, William Goetzmann), Journal of Finance, 67, 2012

• "CEO Pay Slice and Firm Performance", (With Lucian Bebchuk, Urs Peyer), Journal of Financial Economics, 102, 2011

• "Institutional Investors and Proxy Voting: The Impact of the 2003 Mutual Fund Voting Disclosure Regulation", (With Roberta Romano), American Law and Economics Review, 13, 2011

• "Internal Capital Markets and Corporate Politics in a Banking Group", (With Rocco Huang, Zacharias Sautner), Review of Financial Studies, 24, 2011

• "Deviations from Put-Call Parity and Stock Return Predictability", (With David Weinbaum), Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, 45, 2010

• "Does skin in the game matter? Director incentives and governance in the mutual fund industry", (With Joost Driessen, Pascal Maenhout, David Weinbaum), Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, 44, 2009

• "How active is your fund manager? A new measure that predicts performance", (With Antti Petajisto), Review of Financial Studies , 22, 2009

• "Takeovers and the cross-section of returns", (With Vinay Nair, Kose John), Review of Financial Studies , 22, 2009

• "Explaining the level of credit spreads: option-implied jump risk premia in a firm value model", (With Joost Driessen, Pascal Maenhout), Review of Financial Studies, 21, 2008

• "Individual stock-price implied volatility and credit spreads", (With Joost Driessen, Pascal Maenhout, David Weinbaum), Journal of Banking and Finance, 32, 2008

• "Takeover Defenses and Competition: the Role of Stakeholders", (With Vinay Nair, Urs Peyer), Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, 5, 2008

• "Governance mechanisms and bond prices", (With Vinay Nair, Jason Wei), Review of Financial Studies, 20, 2007

• "Turning over turnover", (With Jianping Mei), Review of Financial Studies, 20, 2007

• "Multifactor efficiency, state variables and Bayesian inference", Journal of Business, 79, 2006

• "Governance mechanisms and equity prices", (With Vinay Nair), Journal of Finance, 60, 2005

• "Stock return predictability: A Bayesian model selection perspective", Review of Financial Studies, 15, 2002

Awards

• "Second-place Winner, 2013 SPIVA (‘S&P Indices Versus Active’) Research Awards", SPIVA (‘S&P Indices Versus Active’) Research Awards, 2014

• "Winner of the Best Academic Paper award at the 2014 annual corporate governance symposium", the University of Delaware’s John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance , 2014

• "Investor Responsibility Research Center (IRRC) Institute, Research Grant, 2013-2014", Investor Responsibility Research Center (IRRC) Institute, 2013

• "Q Group (The Institute for Quantitative Research in Finance) Research Grant, 2013-2014 for “Patient Capital Outperformance”", Q Group, 2013

• "Winner of the Journal of Investment Consulting’s 2013 academic paper competition for “Emerging Market Outperformance: Public‐Traded Affiliates of Multinational Corporations”", Journal of Investment Consulting, 2013

• "Inquire Europe Research Grant for “Can Large Pension Funds Beat the Market? Asset Allocation, Market Timing, Security Selection and the Limits of Liquidity”", Inquire Europe, 2012

• "Outstanding Investments Paper award for “Can Large Pension Funds Beat the Market?"", Eastern Finance Association , 2012

• "Pension Fund Research Grant", Rotman International Centre for Pension Management (ICPM, University of Toronto) , 2012

• "Academic Competition Award (2nd place) for “Short-Term Trading and Stock Return Anomalies: Momentum, Reversal and Share Issuance”", Chicago Quantitative Alliance (CQA) , 2010

• "Distinguished Referee Award", Review of Financial Studies, 2010

• "Inquire Europe Research Grant", Inquire Europe, 2010

• "Pension Funds Research Grant", Rotman International Centre for Pension Management (ICPM, University of Toronto) , 2010

• "Roger F. Murray Prize 2010 (3rd place) for the best paper presentation at the Q group conferences in 2009 for “Should Benchmark Indices Have Alpha? Revisiting Performance Evaluation”", Q group, 2010

• "Finalist for Wheeler Award for Quantitative and Behavioral Research in Finance for “Should Benchmark Indices Have Alpha? Revisiting Performance Evaluation”", Numeric Investors, 2008

• "Robert C. Clark Corporate Governance Fund Research Grant ($100,000, with Allen Ferrell) for coding data for “Thirty years of shareholder rights and firm valuation”", Harvard Law School, 2008

• "Winner (first price) of the Wheeler Award for Quantitative and Behavioral Research in Finance, for “Deviations from Put-Call Parity and Stock Return Predictability”", Numeric Investors, 2008

• "Crowell Memorial Prize Award (3rd place) for “Deviations from Put-Call Parity and Stock Return Predictability”", PanAgora Asset Management, 2007

• "Best paper award at the 2006 Financial Research Association annual meeting in Las Vegas for “How active is your fund manager?”", Financial Research Association , 2006

• "Finalist for the Smith Breeden Prize for the best paper published in the Journal of Finance in 2005", Journal of Finance, 2006

• "BSI/Gamma Foundation Research Grant", BSI/Gamma Foundation, 2002

• "Crowell Memorial Prize Award (2nd place)", PanAgora Asset Management, 2001