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Local corruption and dividend policy: Evidence from Vietnam

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  • Tran, Quoc Trung

Abstract

Some prior studies show that firms in high corruption countries tend to save more cash in order to make unofficial payments. This implies that managers in a corrupt environment are more flexible to use firms’ cash. Therefore, managers may take advantage of this opportunity to expropriate shareholders by restricting dividend policy. However, other studies find that shareholders may recognize this expropriation behavior and thus shareholders in countries of high corruption pressure managers to pay more dividends. In this paper, we investigate how local corruption influences dividend policy in Vietnam — an emerging market with weak corporate governance. Using a sample of 5,160 observations from firms listed in Vietnamese stock market from 2007 to 2017, we find that local corruption positively affects both the likelihood to pay dividends and payout ratio. Moreover, our research findings show that state ownership mitigates this effect and this effect is stronger in financial unconstrained firms.

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  • Tran, Quoc Trung, 2021. "Local corruption and dividend policy: Evidence from Vietnam," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 195-205.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecanpo:v:70:y:2021:i:c:p:195-205
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eap.2021.02.011
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    Cited by:

    1. Tran, Quoc Trung & Nguyen, Van Phong & Dang, Duong Huy Chuong & Nguyen, Ba Phong & Le, Phuong Linh, 2023. "Local corruption and capital structure," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 55(PB).
    2. Dong, Bin & Chen, Yizi & Fan, Cunbin, 2022. "Local corruption and dividend policy: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 47(PB).
    3. Le, Anh-Tuan & Doan, Anh-Tuan & Phan, Thu, 2021. "Institutional development and firm risk from a dynamic perspective: Does ownership structure matter?," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 342-357.
    4. Luciano Barcellos‐Paula & Carlos Agüero‐Olivos, 2022. "The strengthening of corporate governance based on applied fuzzy logic," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(5), pages 1736-1746, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Corruption; Dividend policy; Vietnam; Emerging markets;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance

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