IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finana/v48y2016icp162-181.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A macro-analysis of financial decisions: An examination of special dividend announcements

Author

Listed:
  • Beladi, Hamid
  • Chao, Chi Chur
  • Hu, May

Abstract

This paper investigates macro-level explanations for why firms pay special dividends. We find both the business cycle and market condition affect the propensity and abnormal returns of special dividends. Firms are more likely to announce special dividends in market or economic downturns than upturns. They tend to use additional cash for business growth in expansions and distribute it to reduce agency costs in contractions. The signaling effect of special dividends is stronger and companies with these announcements are better performers in recessions than in expansions. This research sheds light on and enhances the understanding of why firms disburse extra cash dividends at the aggregate level.

Suggested Citation

  • Beladi, Hamid & Chao, Chi Chur & Hu, May, 2016. "A macro-analysis of financial decisions: An examination of special dividend announcements," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 162-181.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finana:v:48:y:2016:i:c:p:162-181
    DOI: 10.1016/j.irfa.2016.09.015
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1057521916301508
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.irfa.2016.09.015?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mitchell, Mark L & Stafford, Erik, 2000. "Managerial Decisions and Long-Term Stock Price Performance," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 73(3), pages 287-329, July.
    2. Harding, Don & Pagan, Adrian, 2011. "An Econometric Analysis of Some Models for Constructed Binary Time Series," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 29(1), pages 86-95.
    3. Beladi, Hamid & Chao, Chi Chur & Hu, May, 2016. "Another January effect—Evidence from stock split announcements," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 123-138.
    4. Lowry, Michelle, 2003. "Why does IPO volume fluctuate so much?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 3-40, January.
    5. Malcolm Baker & Jeffrey Wurgler, 2006. "Investor Sentiment and the Cross‐Section of Stock Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(4), pages 1645-1680, August.
    6. Bradford, William & Chen, Chao & Zhu, Song, 2013. "Cash dividend policy, corporate pyramids, and ownership structure: Evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 445-464.
    7. Malcolm Baker & Jeffrey Wurgler, 2000. "The Equity Share in New Issues and Aggregate Stock Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(5), pages 2219-2257, October.
    8. Malcolm Baker & Jeffrey Wurgler, 2007. "Investor Sentiment in the Stock Market," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 21(2), pages 129-152, Spring.
    9. Ming Dong & David Hirshleifer & Scott Richardson & Siew Hong Teoh, 2006. "Does Investor Misvaluation Drive the Takeover Market?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(2), pages 725-762, April.
    10. 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.
    11. Denis, David J, 1990. "Defensive Changes in Corporate Payout Policy: Share Repurchases and Special Dividends," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 45(5), pages 1433-1456, December.
    12. Su, Zhong-qin & Fung, Hung-Gay & Huang, Deng-shi & Shen, Chung-Hua, 2014. "Cash dividends, expropriation, and political connections: Evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 260-272.
    13. Massa, Massimo & Rehman, Zahid & Vermaelen, Theo, 2007. "Mimicking repurchases," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(3), pages 624-666, June.
    14. Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W., 2003. "Stock market driven acquisitions," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(3), pages 295-311, December.
    15. Chordia, Tarun & Shivakumar, Lakshmanan, 2006. "Earnings and price momentum," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(3), pages 627-656, June.
    16. Helwege, Jean & Liang, Nellie, 2004. "Initial Public Offerings in Hot and Cold Markets," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 39(3), pages 541-569, September.
    17. Indudeep S. Chhachhi & Wallace N. Davidson, III, 1997. "A Comparison of the Market Reaction to Specially Designated Dividends and Tender Offer Stock Repurchases," Financial Management, Financial Management Association, vol. 26(3), Fall.
    18. Hull, Tyler J., 2015. "How the timing of dividend reductions can signal value," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 114-131.
    19. Lee, Chien-Chiang & Chen, Mei-Ping & Chang, Chi-Hung, 2013. "Dynamic relationships between industry returns and stock market returns," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 119-144.
    20. Rau, P. Raghavendra & Stouraitis, Aris, 2011. "Patterns in the Timing of Corporate Event Waves," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 46(1), pages 209-246, February.
    21. White, Halbert, 1980. "A Heteroskedasticity-Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimator and a Direct Test for Heteroskedasticity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(4), pages 817-838, May.
    22. Dittmar, Amy K. & Dittmar, Robert F., 2008. "The timing of financing decisions: An examination of the correlation in financing waves," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(1), pages 59-83, October.
    23. Stewart C. Myers, 2001. "Capital Structure," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 15(2), pages 81-102, Spring.
    24. Wu, Shue-Jen & Lee, Wei-Ming, 2015. "Intertemporal risk–return relationships in bull and bear markets," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 308-325.
    25. Rhodes-Kropf, Matthew & Robinson, David T. & Viswanathan, S., 2005. "Valuation waves and merger activity: The empirical evidence," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(3), pages 561-603, September.
    26. Brickley, James A., 1983. "Shareholder wealth, information signaling and the specially designated dividend : An empirical study," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 187-209, August.
    27. Beladi, Hamid & Chao, Chi Chur & Hu, May, 2016. "The Christmas effect—Special dividend announcements," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 15-30.
    28. Howe, Keith M & He, Jia & Kao, G Wenchi, 1992. "One-Time Cash Flow Announcements and Free Cash-Flow Theory: Share Repurchases and Special Dividends," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(5), pages 1963-1975, December.
    29. Rodney D. Boehme & Sorin M. Sorescu, 2002. "The Long‐run Performance Following Dividend Initiations and Resumptions: Underreaction or Product of Chance?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(2), pages 871-900, April.
    30. Antoniou, Antonios & Lam, Herbert Y.T. & Paudyal, Krishna, 2007. "Profitability of momentum strategies in international markets: The role of business cycle variables and behavioural biases," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 955-972, March.
    31. Lie, Erik, 2000. "Excess Funds and Agency Problems: An Empirical Study of Incremental Cash Disbursements," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 13(1), pages 219-247.
    32. Brandon Julio & David L. Ikenberry, 2004. "Reappearing Dividends," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 16(4), pages 89-100.
    33. Fama, Eugene F., 1998. "Market efficiency, long-term returns, and behavioral finance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 283-306, September.
    34. Schoder, Christian, 2013. "Credit vs. demand constraints: The determinants of US firm-level investment over the business cycles from 1977 to 2011," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 1-27.
    35. Ikenberry, David & Lakonishok, Josef & Vermaelen, Theo, 1995. "Market underreaction to open market share repurchases," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(2-3), pages 181-208.
    36. Fuller, Kathleen P. & Goldstein, Michael A., 2011. "Do dividends matter more in declining markets?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 457-473, June.
    37. Barclay, M.J. & Smith, C.W., 1988. "Corporate Payout Policy: Cash Dividencds Versus Open- Market Repurchases," Papers 88-10, Rochester, Business - Managerial Economics Research Center.
    38. Ľuboš Pástor & Pietro Veronesi, 2005. "Rational IPO Waves," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(4), pages 1713-1757, August.
    39. David Reeb & Mariko Sakakibara & Ishtiaq P Mahmood, 2012. "From the Editors: Endogeneity in international business research," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 43(3), pages 211-218, April.
    40. Carhart, Mark M, 1997. "On Persistence in Mutual Fund Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 57-82, March.
    41. DeAngelo, Harry & DeAngelo, Linda & Stulz, René M., 2010. "Seasoned equity offerings, market timing, and the corporate lifecycle," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(3), pages 275-295, March.
    42. Malcolm Baker & Jeffrey Wurgler, 2004. "A Catering Theory of Dividends," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 59(3), pages 1125-1165, June.
    43. Ofer, Aharon R & Thakor, Anjan V, 1987. "A Theory of Stock Price Responses to Alternative Corporate Cash Disbursement Methods: Stock Repurchases and Dividends," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 42(2), pages 365-394, June.
    44. Laborda, Ricardo & Muñoz, Fernando, 2016. "Optimal allocation of government bond funds through the business cycle. Is money smart?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 46-67.
    45. Barclay, Michael J. & Smith, Clifford Jr., 1988. "Corporate payout policy : Cash Dividends versus Open-Market Repurchases," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 61-82, October.
    46. Jinho Byun & Michael S. Rozeff, 2003. "Long-run Performance after Stock Splits: 1927 to 1996," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(3), pages 1063-1086, June.
    47. John M. Griffin & Xiuqing Ji & J. Spencer Martin, 2003. "Momentum Investing and Business Cycle Risk: Evidence from Pole to Pole," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(6), pages 2515-2547, December.
    48. Jeon, Haejun & Nishihara, Michi, 2015. "The effects of business cycle and debt maturity on a firm's investment and default decisions," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 326-351.
    49. Adrian R. Pagan & Kirill A. Sossounov, 2003. "A simple framework for analysing bull and bear markets," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(1), pages 23-46.
    50. Tarun Chordia & Lakshmanan Shivakumar, 2002. "Momentum, Business Cycle, and Time‐varying Expected Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(2), pages 985-1019, April.
    51. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 1993. "Common risk factors in the returns on stocks and bonds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 3-56, February.
    52. Myers, Stewart C., 2003. "Financing of corporations," 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 4, pages 215-253, Elsevier.
    53. Malcolm Baker & Jeffrey Wurgler, 2002. "Market Timing and Capital Structure," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(1), pages 1-32, February.
    54. Harford, Jarrad, 2005. "What drives merger waves?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(3), pages 529-560, September.
    55. Benhabib, Jess & Liu, Xuewen & Wang, Pengfei, 2016. "Sentiments, financial markets, and macroeconomic fluctuations," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(2), pages 420-443.
    56. Matthew Rhodes-Kropf & S. Viswanathan, 2004. "Market Valuation and Merger Waves," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 59(6), pages 2685-2718, December.
    57. Cheung, William Mingyan & Chung, Richard & Fung, Scott, 2015. "The effects of stock liquidity on firm value and corporate governance: Endogeneity and the REIT experiment," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 211-231.
    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. Booth, Laurence & Wang, Mengying & Zhou, Jun, 2019. "Import competition and financial flexibility: Evidence from corporate payout policy," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 382-396.
    2. Hu, May & Chao, Chi-Chur & Malone, Chris & Young, Martin, 2017. "Real determinants of stock split announcements," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 574-598.
    3. Dasilas, Apostolos & Grose, Chris, 2019. "Valuation effects of tax-free versus taxed cash distributions," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 307-321.
    4. Beladi, Hamid & Deng, Jie & Hu, May, 2021. "Cash flow uncertainty, financial constraints and R&D investment," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    5. Hu, May & Tuilautala, Mataiasi & Kang, Yuni, 2019. "Bandwagon effect: Special dividend payments," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 339-363.
    6. Beladi, Hamid & Hu, May & Li, Silei & Yang, JingJing, 2022. "Dual-class share structure on the dividend payout policy: Evidence from China Concepts Stocks," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    7. Baker, H. Kent & Kumar, Satish & Goyal, Kirti & Sharma, Anuj, 2021. "International review of financial analysis: A retrospective evaluation between 1992 and 2020," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).

    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. Hu, May & Chao, Chi-Chur & Malone, Chris & Young, Martin, 2017. "Real determinants of stock split announcements," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 574-598.
    2. Hu, May & Tuilautala, Mataiasi & Kang, Yuni, 2019. "Bandwagon effect: Special dividend payments," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 339-363.
    3. Beladi, Hamid & Chao, Chi Chur & Hu, May, 2016. "The Christmas effect—Special dividend announcements," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 15-30.
    4. Ulrike Malmendier, 2018. "Behavioral Corporate Finance," NBER Working Papers 25162, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Beladi, Hamid & Chao, Chi Chur & Hu, May, 2016. "Another January effect—Evidence from stock split announcements," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 123-138.
    6. Malcolm Baker & Richard S. Ruback & Jeffrey Wurgler, 2004. "Behavioral Corporate Finance: A Survey," NBER Working Papers 10863, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Dittmar, Amy K. & Dittmar, Robert F., 2008. "The timing of financing decisions: An examination of the correlation in financing waves," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(1), pages 59-83, October.
    8. Chou, De-Wai & Liu, Yi & Zantout, Zaher, 2009. "Long-term stock performance following extraordinary and special cash dividends," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 54-73, February.
    9. David Hirshleifer & Danling Jiang, 2010. "A Financing-Based Misvaluation Factor and the Cross-Section of Expected Returns," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(9), pages 3401-3436.
    10. An, Suwei, 2023. "Essays on incentive contracts, M&As, and firm risk," Other publications TiSEM dd97d2f5-1c9d-47c5-ba62-f, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    11. Lin, Hsuan-Chu & Chou, Ting-Kai & Cheng, Jia-Chi, 2011. "Does market misvaluation drive post-acquisition underperformance in stock deals?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 690-706, October.
    12. Vermaelen, Theo & Xu, Moqi, 2014. "Acquisition finance and market timing," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 73-91.
    13. Alimov, Azizjon & Mikkelson, Wayne, 2012. "Does favorable investor sentiment lead to costly decisions to go public?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 519-540.
    14. David Hirshleife, 2015. "Behavioral Finance," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 7(1), pages 133-159, December.
    15. Massa, Massimo & Zhang, Lei, 2009. "Cosmetic mergers: The effect of style investing on the market for corporate control," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(3), pages 400-427, September.
    16. Huang, Chia-Wei, 2015. "Takeover vulnerability and the credibility of signaling: The case of open-market share repurchases," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 405-417.
    17. Valentin Haddad & Erik Loualiche & Matthew Plosser, 2017. "Buyout Activity: The Impact of Aggregate Discount Rates," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(1), pages 371-414, February.
    18. Liang, Woan-lih, 2016. "Sensitivity to investor sentiment and stock performance of open market share repurchases," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 75-94.
    19. Lin, Ji-Chai & Wu, YiLin, 2013. "SEO timing and liquidity risk," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 19(C), pages 95-118.
    20. Fu, Fangjian & Lin, Leming & Officer, Micah S., 2013. "Acquisitions driven by stock overvaluation: Are they good deals?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(1), pages 24-39.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Special dividends; Market driven; Business cycle;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • G35 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Payout Policy

    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:eee:finana:v:48:y:2016:i:c:p:162-181. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/620166 .

    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.