IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/
MyIDEAS: Log in (now much improved!) to save this article

What drives the disappearing dividends phenomenon?

Author Info

Listed author(s):
  • Kuo, Jing-Ming
  • Philip, Dennis
  • Zhang, Qingjing
Registered author(s):

    Abstract

    We study the determinants of dividend payout policy and examine the role of liquidity, risk and catering in explaining the changes in propensity to pay. Our results indicate that risk plays a major role in firms’ dividend policy. The evidence substantiates from a large sample of firms representing 18 countries over the sample period from 1989 to 2011. For firms in the US, France, UK and Other European markets, liquidity is additionally an important determinant of dividend policy. We find that, although catering incentives persist only among firms in common law countries and not in civil law countries, after adjusting for risk there is little support for catering theory even among firms incorporated in common law countries. Our results indicate that catering incentives reflect the risk-reward relationship in the changing propensity to pay dividends.

    Download Info

    If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378426613002215
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.

    Article provided by Elsevier in its journal Journal of Banking & Finance.

    Volume (Year): 37 (2013)
    Issue (Month): 9 ()
    Pages: 3499-3514

    as
    in new window

    Handle: RePEc:eee:jbfina:v:37:y:2013:i:9:p:3499-3514
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbankfin.2013.05.003
    Contact details of provider: Web page: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbf

    Keywords: Catering; Dividend payout policy; Risk; Liquidity; Life-cycle effect;

    Find related papers by JEL classification:

    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • G15 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - International Financial Markets
    • G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General
    • G35 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Payout Policy

    References listed on IDEAS
    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.:

    as
    in new window


    1. Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 1998. "Law and Finance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(6), pages 1113-1155, December.
    2. Denis, David J. & Osobov, Igor, 2008. "Why do firms pay dividends? International evidence on the determinants of dividend policy," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 62-82, July.
    3. 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.
    4. Liu, Weimin, 2006. "A liquidity-augmented capital asset pricing model," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(3), pages 631-671, December.
    5. Adam S. Koch & Amy X. Sun, 2004. "Dividend Changes and the Persistence of Past Earnings Changes," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 59(5), pages 2093-2116, October.
    6. Banerjee, Suman & Gatchev, Vladimir A. & Spindt, Paul A., 2007. "Stock Market Liquidity and Firm Dividend Policy," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 42(02), pages 369-397, June.
    7. Gerard Hoberg & Nagpurnanand R. Prabhala, 2009. "Disappearing Dividends, Catering, and Risk," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(1), pages 79-116, January.
    8. Malcolm Baker & Jeffrey Wurgler, 2004. "A Catering Theory of Dividends," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 59(3), pages 1125-1165, 06.
    9. Stephen P. Ferris & Nilanjan Sen & Ho Pei Yui, 2006. "God Save the Queen and Her Dividends: Corporate Payouts in the United Kingdom," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 79(3), pages 1149-1174, May.
    10. Fama, Eugene F & MacBeth, James D, 1973. "Risk, Return, and Equilibrium: Empirical Tests," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(3), pages 607-636, May-June.
    11. Baker, Malcolm & Wurgler, Jeffrey, 2004. "Appearing and disappearing dividends: The link to catering incentives," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(2), pages 271-288, August.
    12. Amihud, Yakov & Mendelson, Haim, 1986. "Asset pricing and the bid-ask spread," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 223-249, December.
    13. Amihud, Yakov, 2002. "Illiquidity and stock returns: cross-section and time-series effects," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 31-56, January.
    14. Yexiao Xu & Burton G. Malkiel, 2003. "Investigating the Behavior of Idiosyncratic Volatility," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 76(4), pages 613-644, October.
    15. Lubos PÁstor & Veronesi Pietro, 2003. "Stock Valuation and Learning about Profitability," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(5), pages 1749-1790, October.
    16. Merton H. Miller & Franco Modigliani, 1961. "Dividend Policy, Growth, and the Valuation of Shares," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34, pages 411-411.
    17. Anne-Marie Anderson & Edward A. Dyl, 2005. "Market Structure And Trading Volume," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 28(1), pages 115-131.
    18. DeAngelo, Harry & DeAngelo, Linda & Stulz, Rene M., 2006. "Dividend policy and the earned/contributed capital mix: a test of the life-cycle theory," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(2), pages 227-254, August.
    19. Gustavo Grullon & Roni Michaely & Bhaskaran Swaminathan, 2002. "Are Dividend Changes a Sign of Firm Maturity?," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 75(3), pages 387-424, July.
    20. von Eije, Henk & Megginson, William L., 2008. "Dividends and share repurchases in the European Union," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(2), pages 347-374, August.
    21. Ferris, Stephen P. & Jayaraman, Narayanan & Sabherwal, Sanjiv, 2009. "Catering effects in corporate dividend policy: The international evidence," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(9), pages 1730-1738, September.
    22. 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.
    23. Brandon Julio & David L. Ikenberry, 2004. "Reappearing Dividends," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 16(4), pages 89-100.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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

    as
    in new window


    Cited by:

    1. Rihanat Idowu Abdulkadir & Nur Adiana Hiau Abdullah & Wong Woei-Chyuan, 2015. "Dividend Policy Changes in The Pre-, Mid-, and Post-Financial Crisis: Evidence from The Nigerian Stock Market," Asian Academy of Management Journal of Accounting and Finance (AAMJAF), Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia, vol. 11(2), pages 103-126.
    2. Nabaraj Adhikari, Ph.D., 2015. "Determinants of Corporate Dividend Payout in Nepal," NRB Economic Review, Nepal Rastra Bank, Research Department, vol. 27(2), pages 1-22, October.
    3. Kamal Anouar & Nicolas Aubert, 2016. "Does the catering theory of dividend apply to the French listed firms?," Working Papers halshs-01401867, HAL.

    This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

    Access and download statistics

    When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbfina:v:37:y:2013:i:9:p:3499-3514. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Dana Niculescu)

    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 references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

    If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link 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 profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

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

    This information is provided to you by IDEAS at the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis using RePEc data.