Stephen P. Ferris (University of Missouri–Columbia) Nilanjan Sen (Nanyang Technological University) Ho Pei Yui (Nanyang Technological University)
Abstract
We examine whether the decline in the number of dividend payers is purely a U.S. phenomenon or is part of a global trend. Focusing on the United Kingdom, a capital market comparable in maturity and sophistication to that of the United States, we find that the number of U.K. firms paying dividends declines from 75.9% to 54.5%. After controlling for firm size and profitability, we find a declining propensity to pay dividends over the 1998–2002 subperiod. We conclude that a shift in catering incentives appears most likely explain these recent changes in U.K. payout policies.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Publisher Info
Article provided by University of Chicago Press in its journal Journal of Business.
Volume (Year): 79 (2006) Issue (Month): 3 (May) Pages: 1149-1174 Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML
(with abstract),
plain text
(with abstract),
BibTeX,
RIS (EndNote, RefMan, ProCite),
ReDIF