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Dividend Policy inside the Firm

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Author Info
Mihir A. Desai
C. Fritz Foley
James R. Hines Jr.

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Abstract

This paper analyzes dividend remittances by a large panel of foreign affiliates of U.S. multinational firms. The dividend policies of foreign affiliates, which convey no signals to public capital markets, nevertheless resemble those used by publicly held companies in paying dividends to diffuse common shareholders. Robustness checks verify that dividend policies of foreign affiliates are little affected by the dividend policies of their parent companies or parent company exposure to public capital markets. Systematic differences in the payout behavior of affiliates that differ in organizational form, and those that face differing tax costs of paying dividends, reveal the importance of tax factors; nevertheless, dividend policies are not solely determined by tax considerations. The absence of capital market considerations and the incompleteness of tax explanations together suggest that dividend policies are largely driven by the need to control managers of foreign affiliates. Parent firms are more willing to incur tax penalties by simultaneously investing funds while receiving dividends when their foreign affiliates are partially owned, located far from the United States, or in jurisdictions in which property rights are weak, all of which are implied by control theories of dividends.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 8698.

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Date of creation: Jan 2002
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:8698

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
F23 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - Multinational Firms; International Business
G31 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Capital Budgeting; Investment Policy

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References listed on IDEAS
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Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Selin Sayek & Hyoung Goo Kang & Alexander Lehmann, 2004. "Multinational Affiliates and Local Financial Markets," IMF Working Papers 04/107, International Monetary Fund. [Downloadable!]
  2. Mihir A. Desai & C. Fritz Foley & James R. Hines Jr., 2004. "Capital Controls, Liberalizations, and Foreign Direct Investement," NBER Working Papers 10337, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  3. Pandey I M & Bhat Ramesh, 2004. "Dividend Behaviour of Indian Companies Under Monetary Policy Restrictions," IIMA Working Papers 2004-05-07, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Research and Publication Department. [Downloadable!]
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