Gbenga Ibikunle

Gbenga is a Professor and Chair of Finance at the University of Edinburgh, and as the Director for Industry, Economy and Society at the University of Edinburgh's Edinburgh Futures Institute, he leads on strategic FinTech and Financial Services initiatives at The University of Edinburgh. He is also the Deputy Scientific Director at the Fondazione European Capital Markets Cooperative Research Centre in Pescara, Italy and a Fellow at the Rozetta Institute (formerly Capital Markets CRC) in Sydney, Australia.

Gbenga is an expert on the Carbon Finance Unit of the World Bank's Partnership for Market Readiness Roster of Experts. He has been a Visiting Professor at various times at Macquarie University in Sydney, Universidade Catolica Portuguesa, Porto and China University of Petroleum, Beijing.

Gbenga holds a MBA (with distinction) and a PhD (in Market Microstructure) from the University of East Anglia, where he also held teaching and research positions with the Norwich Business School and the Environmental & Energy Finance Group respectively. He is a graduate of Nigeria's first institution of higher learning, Yaba College of Technology, Lagos, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice from The University of Edinburgh.

Research Taxonomy

• Financial econometrics
• Statistics
• Econometrics of financial markets
• Carbon markets and low carbon investment
• Financial Market Microstructure
• Empirical asset pricing
• Mathematical finance
• Finance & investment
• Financial innovation
• Statistics for finance

Research Interests

Gbenga’s research interests cover the general financial economics space, with a core focus on the microstructure of financial markets. His current research examines the microstructure evolution of financial markets against the backdrop of technology and policy innovations. He has also examined various market microstructure issues realting to trading in energy and environmental markets, such as the markets for crude oil and emissions financial instruments. The practical nature of his research papers has led to his work being discussed in leading international media outlets, such as The New York Times, The Economist, Financial Times, Forbes, and Bloomberg. He has delivered invited research seminars at various private sector fora and universities/academic institutes around the world, including at the UK's Financial Conduct Authority, University of Reading's ICMA Centre, Zhejiang University, Victoria University, Wellington, University of South Australia, Adelaide and Pan African University's Lagos Business School.

Gbenga is the author (with Andros Gregoriou) of 'Carbon Markets: Microstructure, Pricing & Policy', published in 2018 by Palgrave Macmillan. He has also authored/co-authored twenty five peer-reviewed research papers published in leading international journals, including Journal of Financial Markets, Journal of Banking & Finance, Journal of Empirical Finance and Expert Systems with Applications.

Research Area

• Accounting and Finance