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Taxable Cash Dividends

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Author Info
Bechman, Ken L. (Department of Finance, Copenhagen Business School)
Raaballe, Johannes (Department of Finance, Copenhagen Business School)
Abstract

Firms pay out cash using both dividends and share repurchases. In many aspects these two means are similar, but one important difference is that dividends are generally taxed more heavily than share repurchases. Nevertheless firms persist in paying out large amounts in dividends. This paper provides an explanation for this dividend puzzle by developing a class of signaling models violating the “single-crossing property in which information about the quality of the firm is asymmetric between the management and the shareholders. In these models a high-quality firm can always signal its quality by using share repurchases only. However, in certain cases share repurchases become costlier on the margin for a high-quality firm than for a low-quality imitator. In such cases, the high-quality firm signals most cost efficiently by means of a combination of share repurchases and taxable cash dividends financed by the issuance of new shares. Taxable cash dividends financed by the issuance of new shares then can be considered a positive kind of money burning whose role is to signal a firm’s high quality. The implications of the models are consistent with several important empirical facts about dividends and share repurchases. Thus, this paper’s main contribution is to examine a range of new signaling models that provides a role for taxable cash dividends and share repurchases and to derive their empirical implications.

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File URL: http://openarchive.cbs.dk/cbsweb/handle/10398/7156
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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Copenhagen Business School, Department of Finance in its series Working Papers with number 2005-4.

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Length: 42 pages
Date of creation: 28 Jun 2006
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:hhs:cbsfin:2005_004

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Postal: Department of Finance, Copenhagen Business School, Solbjerg Plads 3, A5, DK-2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark
Phone: +45 3815 3815
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Web page: http://www.cbs.dk/departments/finance/
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Related research
Keywords: Dividends; Share Repurchases; Signaling; Single-Crossing Property; Money Burning;

Find related papers by JEL classification:
D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information
G35 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Payout Policy

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

References listed on IDEAS
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  1. B. Douglas Bernheim & Lee S. Redding, 2001. "Optimal Money Burning: Theory and Application to Corporate Dividends," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 10(4), pages 463-507, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Pugh, William & Jahera, John S, Jr, 1990. "Stock Repurchase and Excess Returns: An Empirical Examination," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 25(1), pages 127-42, February.
  3. James M. Poterba & Lawrence H. Summers, 1985. "The Economic Effects of Dividend Taxation," NBER Working Papers 1353, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  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 323-29, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 2001. "Disappearing dividends: changing firm characteristics or lower propensity to pay?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 3-43, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  6. Miller, Merton H & Rock, Kevin, 1985. " Dividend Policy under Asymmetric Information," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 40(4), pages 1031-51, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Sudipto Bhattacharya, 1979. "Imperfect Information, Dividend Policy, and "The Bird in the Hand" Fallacy," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 10(1), pages 259-270, Spring. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. B. Douglas Berhheim, 1991. "Tax Policy and the Dividend Puzzle," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 22(4), pages 455-476, Winter. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  9. Olson, Gerard T & McCann, P Douglas, 1994. "The Linkages between Dividends and Earnings," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 29(1), pages 1-22, February.
  10. Brav, Alon & Graham, John R. & Harvey, Campbell R. & Michaely, Roni, 2005. "Payout policy in the 21st century," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(3), pages 483-527, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  11. Brennan, Michael J & Thakor, Anjan V, 1990. " Shareholder Preferences and Dividend Policy," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 45(4), pages 993-1018, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  12. Keith M. Howe & Steve Vogt & Jia He, 2003. "The Effect of Managerial Ownership on the Short- and Long-run Response to Cash Distributions," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 38(2), pages 179-196, 05. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. DeAngelo, Harry & DeAngelo, Linda & Skinner, Douglas J., 2004. "Are dividends disappearing? Dividend concentration and the consolidation of earnings," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(3), pages 425-456, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  14. Franklin Allen & Roni Michaely, 2002. "Payout Policy," Center for Financial Institutions Working Papers 01-21, Wharton School Center for Financial Institutions, University of Pennsylvania. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
    • Allen, Franklin & Michaely, Roni, 2003. "Payout policy," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 7, pages 337-429 Elsevier. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  15. Franklin Allen & Antonio E. Bernardo & Ivo Welch, 2000. "A Theory of Dividends Based on Tax Clienteles," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(6), pages 2499-2536, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
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