IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehs/wpaper/8023.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Rule Britannia!: British Stock Market Returns, 1825-1870

Author

Listed:
  • Graeme G. Acheson

    (University of Ulster)

  • Charles R. Hickson

    (Queen's University Belfast)

  • John D. Turner

    (Queen's University Belfast)

  • Qing Ye

    (Queen's University Belfast)

Abstract

"This article presents a new series of monthly equity returns for the British stock market for the period 1825- 70. As well as calculating capital appreciation and dividend yields, the article also attempts to take account of the effect of survivorship bias on returns. Three notable findings emerge from this study. Firstly, stock- market returns in the 1825-70 period are higher in Britain than in the United States. Secondly, real returns in the 1825-70 period are higher than in subsequent epochs of British history. Thirdly, unlike the modern era, the vast majority of returns in our sample period come from dividends rather than capital appreciation."

Suggested Citation

  • Graeme G. Acheson & Charles R. Hickson & John D. Turner & Qing Ye, 2008. "Rule Britannia!: British Stock Market Returns, 1825-1870," Working Papers 8023, Economic History Society.
  • Handle: RePEc:ehs:wpaper:8023
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.ehs.org.uk/dotAsset/f3f5fbbc-7dc1-4920-a747-ffe0d1ed2e5a.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eugene F. Fama & Kenneth R. French, 2001. "Disappearing Dividends: Changing Firm Characteristics Or Lower Propensity To Pay?," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 14(1), pages 67-79, March.
    2. Smith, Clifford Jr. & Watts, Ross L., 1992. "The investment opportunity set and corporate financing, dividend, and compensation policies," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 263-292, December.
    3. Goetzmann, William N. & Ibbotson, Roger G. & Peng, Liang, 2001. "A new historical database for the NYSE 1815 to 1925: Performance and predictability," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 4(1), pages 1-32, January.
    4. Jensen, Michael C, 1986. "Agency Costs of Free Cash Flow, Corporate Finance, and Takeovers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 323-329, May.
    5. Gaver, Jennifer J. & Gaver, Kenneth M., 1993. "Additional evidence on the association between the investment opportunity set and corporate financing, dividend, and compensation policies," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(1-3), pages 125-160, April.
    6. Schwert, G William, 1990. "Stock Returns and Real Activity: A Century of Evidence," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 45(4), pages 1237-1257, September.
    7. Fama, Eugene F, 1990. "Stock Returns, Expected Returns, and Real Activity," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 45(4), pages 1089-1108, September.
    8. Goetzmann, William N. & Ibbotson, Roger G., 2006. "The Equity Risk Premium: Essays and Explorations," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195148145.
    9. Easterbrook, Frank H, 1984. "Two Agency-Cost Explanations of Dividends," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(4), pages 650-659, September.
    10. Ibbotson, Roger G & Sinquefield, Rex A, 1976. "Stocks, Bonds, Bills, and Inflation: Year-by-Year Historical Returns (1926-1974)," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 49(1), pages 11-47, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Turner, John D., 2017. "The development of English company law before 1900," QUCEH Working Paper Series 2017-01, Queen's University Belfast, Queen's University Centre for Economic History.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Choy, HiuLam & Gul, Ferdinand A. & Yao, Jun, 2011. "Does political economy reduce agency costs? Some evidence from dividend policies around the world," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 16-35, January.
    2. Basharat Khan & Qiujun Zhao & Amjad Iqbal & Irfan Ullah & Shahab Aziz, 2022. "Internal Dynamics of Dividend Policy in East-Asia: A Comparative Study of Japan and South Korea," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(2), pages 21582440221, April.
    3. Namryoung Lee & Jaehong Lee, 2019. "R & D Intensity and Dividend Policy: Evidence from South Korea’s Biotech Firms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-21, September.
    4. Ming-Hui Wang & Mei-Chu Ke & Day-Yang Liu & Yen-Sheng Huang, 2011. "Dividend Policy And The Life Cycle Hypothesis: Evidence From Taiwan," The International Journal of Business and Finance Research, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 5(1), pages 33-52.
    5. James, Hui & Benson, Bradley W. & Wu, Chen (Ken), 2017. "Does CEO ownership affect payout policy? Evidence from using CEO scaled wealth-performance sensitivity," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 328-345.
    6. Nan-Ting Kuo, 2013. "Dividend tax signaling and the pricing of future earnings: a case of taxable stock dividends," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 40(3), pages 539-570, April.
    7. Gugler, Klaus, 2003. "Corporate governance, dividend payout policy, and the interrelation between dividends, R&D, and capital investment," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(7), pages 1297-1321, July.
    8. Kothari, S. P., 2001. "Capital markets research in accounting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1-3), pages 105-231, September.
    9. Anwar Boumosleh & Brandon Cline, 2015. "Outside Director Stock Options and Dividend Policy," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 47(3), pages 381-410, June.
    10. Benlemlih, Mohammed, 2019. "Corporate social responsibility and dividend policy," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 114-138.
    11. White, Lourdes Ferreira, 1996. "Executive compensation and dividend policy," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 2(4), pages 335-358, July.
    12. Sun, Liang & Yu, Huaibing, 2022. "The effects of busy board on firm’s probability to pay dividends," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    13. Bank, Steven & Cheffins, Brian & Goergen, Marc, 2009. "Dividends and politics," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 208-224, June.
    14. Turner, John D., 2014. "Financial history and financial economics," QUCEH Working Paper Series 14-03, Queen's University Belfast, Queen's University Centre for Economic History.
    15. Chay, J.B. & Suh, Jungwon, 2009. "Payout policy and cash-flow uncertainty," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(1), pages 88-107, July.
    16. Liu, Chunyan & Uchida, Konari & Yang, Yufeng, 2014. "Controlling shareholder, split-share structure reform and cash dividend payments in China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 339-357.
    17. Duygun, Meryem & Guney, Yilmaz & Moin, Abdul, 2018. "Dividend policy of Indonesian listed firms: The role of families and the state," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 336-354.
    18. Murhadi, Werner-Ria, 2008. "Study On Dividend Policy: Antecedent and Its Impact On Share Price," MPRA Paper 25596, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Mostafa Harakeh & Ghida Matar & Nagham Sayour, 2020. "Information asymmetry and dividend policy of Sarbanes-Oxley Act," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 47(6), pages 1507-1532, April.
    20. Trojanowski, G., 2004. "Ownership structure as a mechanism of corporate governance," Other publications TiSEM 5dbc874d-d1d0-44a5-9717-8, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • N00 - Economic History - - General - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ehs:wpaper:8023. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chair Public Engagement Committe (currently David Higgins - Newcastle) (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ehsukea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.