Previous empirical studies have documented that equity prices react to announcements of unexpected dividend changes. The most promising hypothesis forwarded as an explanation of this phenomenon is the dividend signalling hypothesis. Building on a foundation of dividend signalling models, this study employs an expanded set of explanatory variables to explain excess returns documented around divi...

This paper measures the effect of dividend initiation announcements on firms’ stock returns using a propensity score matching approach. Unlike the traditional event study methodology, propensity score matching can reduce the bias in the estimation of dividend initiation effects by controlling for the existence of confounding factors. Consistent with previous studies, the results show that divid...

The dividend policy is one of the most debated topics in the finance literature. According to the dividend signalling hypothesis, which has motivated a significant amount of theoretical and empirical research, dividend change announcements trigger share returns because they convey information about management’s assessment on firms’ future prospects. Consequently, a dividend increase (decrease) ...

This paper investigates the determinants of dividend policy for Australian DCs and MCs. In considering dividend payout ratios we adopt two definitions – cash dividends and total dividends. The cash dividend payout ratios consists of cash dividends to net earnings while total dividend payout ratios consists of both cash dividends and share repurchases to net earnings. The determinants of foreign...

This paper offers a new mathematical formulation that addresses the relationship between expected price-to-book ratio, dividend per share, dividend payout ratio, systematic and unsystematic risks. The sample includes the non-financial firms in the DJIA covering the period 1997-2006. The general results show that the expected price-to-book ratios are: (a) positively associated with the expected ...

This paper examines the stock price sensitivity to dividend changes. The Dividend Signaling, the Free-Cash-Flow, the Maturity and the Catering Hypotheses all predict an average positive (negative) reaction to announcement of a dividend increase (decrease). However, these hypotheses have different cross-sectional predictions. This paper documents that the positive stock price response to dividen...

In this paper we study the significance of dividend initiations in the context of firm performance, risk, and shareholder returns. Our evidence contradicts the principal implication of the signaling hypothesis that increase in dividend rate is positively related to future firm prosperity. We observe that firms report improving profitability, cash flow and other performance measures leading up t...

In this study, we examine the impact of dividend and capital gains taxes on dividendincrease announcement returns. Consistent with Bernheim and Wantz (1995), we find dividend announcement returns increase in the dividend tax rate. In contrast to existing signaling models, however, we also find robust evidence that dividend announcement returns increase in the capital gains tax rate. This anomal...

We model consumption and dividend growth as different processes across two latent regimes. We estimate the equilibrium model over 1930-2009 and show that the second regime is associated with recessions, market downturns, higher risk premia, lower consumption and dividend growth, higher volatility of returns and growth rates, and lower market-wide price-dividend ratio. The model performs better ...

We compare the dividend policies of privatelyand publicly-held firms in order to examine Lintner’s (1956) model of dividends, as wells as more recent agency-based and informationbased explanations of observed dividend behavior. Our findings suggest that both public and private firms exhibit a strong aversion to dividend cuts and omissions; however, public firms adhere to a consistent policy of ...