IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finlet/v24y2018icp291-300.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Institutional investment horizon and dividend policy: An empirical study of UK firms

Author

Listed:
  • Kilincarslan, Erhan
  • Ozdemir, Ozgur

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of the institutional investment horizon on dividend policy. Using a panel dataset of non-financial UK firms over the period 2000‒2010, we measure institutional investors’ investment horizons by the churn rate of their overall stock positions in a firm. We find that there is a significantly negative relationship between the churn rate and dividend payments, and this negative relation is robust to the usage of different dividend policy proxies, substitute methodologies and alternative churn rate measures. Thus, our findings suggest that institutions with shorter term investment horizons (with higher churn rates) have a negative impact on dividends, whereas longer term institutional investors (with lower churn rates) have a positive one. Overall, our evidence is consistent with the notion that long-horizon institutions are more concerned with monitoring, compared to short-horizon institutions, and prefer higher dividends to increase dividend-induced capital market monitoring in order to lower the agency costs of managerial discretion. In addition, this positive influence may also reflect the preferences of tax-neutral long-horizon institutions for dividend income due to their liquidity needs, as well as the common institutional charter and prudent-man rule restrictions.

Suggested Citation

  • Kilincarslan, Erhan & Ozdemir, Ozgur, 2018. "Institutional investment horizon and dividend policy: An empirical study of UK firms," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 291-300.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:24:y:2018:i:c:p:291-300
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2017.09.016
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612317300090
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.frl.2017.09.016?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. Derrien, François & Kecskés, Ambrus & Thesmar, David, 2013. "Investor Horizons and Corporate Policies," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 48(6), pages 1755-1780, December.
    2. Paul A. Gompers & Andrew Metrick, 2001. "Institutional Investors and Equity Prices," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(1), pages 229-259.
    3. Xuemin (Sterling) Yan & Zhe Zhang, 2009. "Institutional Investors and Equity Returns: Are Short-term Institutions Better Informed?," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(2), pages 893-924, February.
    4. Elyasiani, Elyas & Jia, Jingyi, 2010. "Distribution of institutional ownership and corporate firm performance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 606-620, March.
    5. Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1986. "Large Shareholders and Corporate Control," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(3), pages 461-488, June.
    6. Andriosopoulos, Dimitris & Yang, Shuai, 2015. "The impact of institutional investors on mergers and acquisitions in the United Kingdom," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 547-561.
    7. Michaely, Roni, 1991. "Ex-dividend Day Stock Price Behavior: The Case of the 1986 Tax Reform Act," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 46(3), pages 845-859, July.
    8. Gaspar, Jose-Miguel & Massa, Massimo & Matos, Pedro, 2005. "Shareholder investment horizons and the market for corporate control," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(1), pages 135-165, April.
    9. Renneboog, L.D.R. & Trojanowski, G., 2005. "Control Structures and Payout Policy," Other publications TiSEM a82281ef-f247-479f-a0e3-1, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    10. Richard J. Zeckhauser & John Pound, 1990. "Are Large Shareholders Effective Monitors? An Investigation of Share Ownership and Corporate Performance," NBER Chapters, in: Asymmetric Information, Corporate Finance, and Investment, pages 149-180, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. 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.
    12. Michaely, Roni & Shaw, Wayne H, 1994. "The Pricing of Initial Public Offerings: Tests of Adverse-Selection and Signaling Theories," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 7(2), pages 279-319.
    13. Amihud, Yakov & Li, Kefei, 2006. "The Declining Information Content of Dividend Announcements and the Effects of Institutional Holdings," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 41(3), pages 637-660, September.
    14. Kalay, Avner, 1982. "The Ex-Dividend Pay Behavior of Stock Prices: A Re-Examination of the Clientele Effect," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 37(4), pages 1059-1070, September.
    15. Demsetz, Harold & Lehn, Kenneth, 1985. "The Structure of Corporate Ownership: Causes and Consequences," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 93(6), pages 1155-1177, December.
    16. Jorge Farinha, 2003. "Dividend Policy, Corporate Governance and the Managerial Entrenchment Hypothesis: An Empirical Analysis," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(9-10), pages 1173-1209.
    17. Jorge Farinha, 2003. "Dividend Policy, Corporate Governance and the Managerial Entrenchment Hypothesis: An Empirical Analysis," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(9‐10), pages 1173-1209, December.
    18. 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.
    19. Miller, Merton H & Rock, Kevin, 1985. "Dividend Policy under Asymmetric Information," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 40(4), pages 1031-1051, September.
    20. Steve Bond & Lucy Chennells & Michael Devereux, 1995. "Company dividends and taxes in the UK," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 16(3), pages 1-18, August.
    21. Ozkan, Neslihan, 2007. "Do corporate governance mechanisms influence CEO compensation? An empirical investigation of UK companies," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 17(5), pages 349-364, December.
    22. Michael S. Rozeff, 1982. "Growth, Beta And Agency Costs As Determinants Of Dividend Payout Ratios," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 5(3), pages 249-259, September.
    23. José-Miguel Gaspar & Massimo Massa & Pedro Matos & Rajdeep Patgiri & Zahid Rehman, 2013. "Payout Policy Choices and Shareholder Investment Horizons," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 17(1), pages 261-320.
    24. Tehmina Khan, 2006. "Company Dividends and Ownership Structure: Evidence from UK Panel Data," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 116(510), pages 172-189, March.
    25. Jain, Ravi, 2007. "Institutional and individual investor preferences for dividends and share repurchases," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 59(5), pages 406-429.
    26. Chen, Xia & Harford, Jarrad & Li, Kai, 2007. "Monitoring: Which institutions matter?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(2), pages 279-305, November.
    27. Yaniv Grinstein & Roni Michaely, 2005. "Institutional Holdings and Payout Policy," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(3), pages 1389-1426, June.
    28. Easterbrook, Frank H, 1984. "Two Agency-Cost Explanations of Dividends," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(4), pages 650-659, September.
    29. Sanford J. Grossman & Oliver D. Hart, 1980. "Takeover Bids, the Free-Rider Problem, and the Theory of the Corporation," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 11(1), pages 42-64, Spring.
    30. Attig, Najah & Cleary, Sean & El Ghoul, Sadok & Guedhami, Omrane, 2012. "Institutional investment horizon and investment–cash flow sensitivity," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 1164-1180.
    31. Short, Helen & Zhang, Hao & Keasey, Kevin, 2002. "The link between dividend policy and institutional ownership," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 8(2), pages 105-122, March.
    32. Edith S. Hotchkiss & Deon Strickland, 2003. "Does Shareholder Composition Matter? Evidence from the Market Reaction to Corporate Earnings Announcements," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(4), pages 1469-1498, August.
    33. 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.
    34. Dong, Min & Ozkan, Aydin, 2008. "Institutional investors and director pay: An empirical study of UK companies," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 16-29, February.
    35. Moh'd, Mahmoud A & Perry, Larry G & Rimbey, James N, 1995. "An Investigation of the Dynamic Relationship between Agency Theory and Dividend Policy," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 30(2), pages 367-385, May.
    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. He, Wen & Mi, Lin, 2022. "Institutional investors’ horizon and equity-financed payouts," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    2. Chang, Kai & Ding, Jiehuan & Lou, Qichun & Li, Zesheng & Yang, Jiahui, 2021. "The impact of capital leverage on green firms’ investment: New evidence regarding the size and age effects of Chinese green industries," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    3. Shamsabadi, Hussein Abedi & Tebourbi, Imen & Nourani, Mohammad & Min, Byung S., 2021. "Corporate Governance and Dividend Reinvestment Plans: Insights from Imputation Tax in Australia," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    4. Kilincarslan, Erhan, 2021. "Smoothed or not smoothed: The impact of the 2008 global financial crisis on dividend stability in the UK," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 38(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. Hussein Abedi Shamsabadi & Byung-Seong Min & Richard Chung, 2016. "Corporate governance and dividend strategy: lessons from Australia," International Journal of Managerial Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 12(5), pages 583-610, October.
    2. Amin, Abu S. & Dutta, Shantanu & Saadi, Samir & Vora, Premal P., 2015. "Institutional shareholding and information content of dividend surprises: Re-examining the dynamics in dividend-reappearance era," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 152-170.
    3. 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.
    4. Chai, D.H., 2010. "Foreign Corporate Ownership and Dividends," Working Papers wp401, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    5. Szilagyi, P.G., 2007. "Corporate governance and the agency costs of debt and outside equity," Other publications TiSEM 9520d40a-224f-43a8-9bf9-b, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    6. Erhan Kilincarslan, 2018. "The Factors Determining the Dividend Policy of Financial Firms Listed on the Borsa Istanbul," Bogazici Journal, Review of Social, Economic and Administrative Studies, Bogazici University, Department of Economics, vol. 32(1), pages 75-109.
    7. Henry, Darren, 2011. "Ownership structure and tax-friendly dividends," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(10), pages 2747-2760, October.
    8. Truong, Thanh & Heaney, Richard, 2007. "Largest shareholder and dividend policy around the world," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 47(5), pages 667-687, December.
    9. Renneboog, L.D.R. & Trojanowski, G., 2005. "Patterns in Payout Policy and Payout Channel Choice of UK Firms in the 1990s," Discussion Paper 2005-002, Tilburg University, Tilburg Law and Economic Center.
    10. Kent Baker, H. & Kilincarslan, Erhan, 2019. "Why companies do not pay cash dividends: The Turkish experience," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 42(C).
    11. 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.
    12. Renneboog, L.D.R. & Trojanowski, G., 2005. "Control Structures and Payout Policy," Other publications TiSEM a82281ef-f247-479f-a0e3-1, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    13. Florackis, Chris & Kanas, Angelos & Kostakis, Alexandros, 2015. "Dividend policy, managerial ownership and debt financing: A non-parametric perspective," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 241(3), pages 783-795.
    14. Maria Elisabete Duante Neves, 2017. "Payout and Firm's Catering," International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), vol. 0(4), pages 104-132.
    15. repec:ers:journl:v:v:y:2017:i:4:p:104-132 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Renneboog, Luc & Szilagyi, Peter G., 2020. "How relevant is dividend policy under low shareholder protection?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    17. Renneboog, Luc & Szilagyi, Peter, 2020. "How relevant is dividend policy under low shareholder protection?," Other publications TiSEM 9fab895c-69f2-4056-8df8-8, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    18. Chacko Jacob & Jijo Lukose P.J., 2018. "Institutional Ownership and Dividend Payout in Emerging Markets: Evidence from India," Journal of Emerging Market Finance, Institute for Financial Management and Research, vol. 17(1_suppl), pages 54-82, April.
    19. Smith, Deborah Drummond & Pennathur, Anita K. & Marciniak, Marek R., 2017. "Why do CEOs agree to the discipline of dividends?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 38-48.
    20. Duha Al-Kuwari, 2012. "Are Large Shareholders Conducting Influential Monitoring in Emerging Markets? An Investigation into the Impact of Large Shareholders on Dividend Decisions: The Case of Kuwait," Research in World Economy, Research in World Economy, Sciedu Press, vol. 3(2), pages 52-67, September.
    21. Darakhshan Younis & Attiya Yasmin Javid, 2014. "Market Imperfections and Dividend Policy Decisions of Manufacturing Sector of Pakistan," PIDE-Working Papers 2014:99, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Dividend policy; Institutional investors; Investment horizon; The UK;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G2 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services
    • G3 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance
    • 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:finlet:v:24:y:2018:i:c:p:291-300. 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/frl .

    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.