IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jfinec/v47y1998i2p161-188.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Why do stock prices drop by less than the value of the dividend? Evidence from a country without taxes

Author

Listed:
  • Frank, Murray
  • Jagannathan, Ravi

Abstract

It is well documented that on average, stock prices drop by less than the value of the dividend on ex-dividend days. This has commonly been attributed to the effect of tax clienteles. We use data from the Hong Kong stock market where neither dividends nor capital gains are taxed. As in the U.S.A. the average stock price drop is less than the value of the dividend; specifically, in Hong Kong the average dividend was HK $0.12 and the average price drop was HK $0.06. We are able to account for this both theoretically and empirically through market microstructure based arguments.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Frank, Murray & Jagannathan, Ravi, 1998. "Why do stock prices drop by less than the value of the dividend? Evidence from a country without taxes," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 161-188, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jfinec:v:47:y:1998:i:2:p:161-188
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304-405X(97)80053-0
    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 below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Boyd, John H & Jagannathan, Ravi, 1994. "Ex-dividend Price Behavior of Common Stocks," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 7(4), pages 711-741.
    2. Hayashi, Fumio & Jagannathan, Ravi, 1990. "Ex-day behavior of japanese stock prices: New insights from new methodology," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 4(4), pages 401-427, December.
    3. Karpoff, Jonathan M. & Walkling, Ralph A., 1990. "Dividend capture in NASDAQ stocks," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(1-2), pages 39-65.
    4. Eades, Kenneth M. & Hess, Patrick J. & Kim, E. Han, 1984. "On interpreting security returns during the ex-dividend period," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 3-34, March.
    5. Poterba, James M., 1986. "The market valuation of cash dividends : The citizens utilities case reconsidered," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 395-405, March.
    6. Miller, Merton H & Scholes, Myron S, 1982. "Dividends and Taxes: Some Empirical Evidence," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 90(6), pages 1118-1141, December.
    7. Elton, Edwin J & Gruber, Martin J, 1970. "Marginal Stockholder Tax Rates and the Clientele Effect," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 52(1), pages 68-74, February.
    8. Grinblatt, Mark S. & Masulis, Ronald W. & Titman, Sheridan, 1984. "The valuation effects of stock splits and stock dividends," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 461-490, December.
    9. Long, John Jr., 1978. "The market valuation of cash dividends : A case to consider," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(2-3), pages 235-264.
    10. Vijh, Anand M, 1994. "The Spinoff and Merger Ex-date Effects," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 49(2), pages 581-609, June.
    11. Karpoff, Jonathan M. & Walkling, Ralph A., 1988. "Short-term trading around ex-dividend days : Additional evidence," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 291-298, September.
    12. Koski, Jennifer Lynch, 1996. "A Microstructure Analysis of Ex-dividend Stock Price Behavior before and after the 1984 and 1986 Tax Reform Acts," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 69(3), pages 313-338, July.
    13. Franklin Allen & Roni Michaely, "undated". "Dividend Policy (Reprint 050)," Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research Working Papers 14-94, Wharton School Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research.
    14. Michaely, Roni & Vila, Jean-Luc, 1995. "Investors' Heterogeneity, Prices, and Volume around the Ex-Dividend Day," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 30(2), pages 171-198, June.
    15. Lakonishok, Josef & Vermaelen, Theo, 1986. "Tax-induced trading around ex-dividend days," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 287-319, July.
    16. Kato, Kiyoshi & Loewenstein, Uri, 1995. "The Ex-Dividend-Day Behavior of Stock Prices: The Case of Japan," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 8(3), pages 817-847.
    17. Michaely, Roni & Vila, Jean-Luc, 1996. "Trading Volume with Private Valuation: Evidence from the Ex-dividend Day," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 9(2), pages 471-509.
    18. Lawrence Kryzanowski & Hao Zhang, 1996. "Trading Patterns Of Small And Large Traders Around Stock Split Ex‐Dates," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 19(1), pages 75-90, March.
    19. Conroy, Robert M & Harris, Robert S & Benet, Bruce A, 1990. "The Effects of Stock Splits on Bid-Ask Spreads," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 45(4), pages 1285-1295, September.
    20. Eades, Kenneth M & Hess, Patrick J & Kim, E Han, 1994. "Time-Series Variation in Dividend Pricing," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 49(5), pages 1617-1638, December.
    21. Barclay, Michael J., 1987. "Dividends, taxes, and common stock prices : The ex-dividend day behavior of common stock prices before the income tax," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 31-44, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Khamis Al Yahyaee & Toan Pham & Terry Walter, 2008. "Ex‐Dividend Day Behavior in the Absence of Taxes and Price Discreteness," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 8(3‐4), pages 103-123, September.
    2. Liljeblom, Eva & Loflund, Anders & Hedvall, Kaj, 2001. "Foreign and domestic investors and tax induced ex-dividend day trading," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 25(9), pages 1687-1716, September.
    3. Ming-Chang Cheng & Ching-Hwa Lee, 2016. "Trading Activities Around Ex-Dividend Days: Evidence from the Taiwan Stock Market," Review of Pacific Basin Financial Markets and Policies (RPBFMP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 19(01), pages 1-17, March.
    4. Blau, Benjamin M. & Fuller, Kathleen P. & Van Ness, Robert A., 2011. "Short selling around dividend announcements and ex-dividend days," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 628-639, June.
    5. Boyd, John H & Jagannathan, Ravi, 1994. "Ex-dividend Price Behavior of Common Stocks," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 7(4), pages 711-741.
    6. Florentsen, Bjarne & Rydqvist, Kristian, 2002. "Ex-Day Behavior When Investors and Professional Traders Assume Reverse Roles: The Case of Danish Lottery Bonds," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 152-175, April.
    7. Green, Richard C. & Rydqvist, Kristian, 1999. "Ex-day behavior with dividend preference and limitations to short-term arbitrage: the case of Swedish lottery bonds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(2), pages 145-187, August.
    8. Paudel, Shishir & Silveri, Sabatino (Dino) & Wu, Mark, 2022. "Investor sentiment and asset prices: Evidence from the ex-day," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    9. Aelee Jun & V. T. Alaganar & Graham Partington & Max Stevenson, 2008. "Price and Volume Behavior around the Ex‐dividend Day: Evidence on the Value of Dividends from American Depositary Receipts and their Underlying Australian Stocks," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 8(1‐2), pages 21-55, March.
    10. Bali, Rakesh & Hite, Gailen L., 1998. "Ex dividend day stock price behavior: discreteness or tax-induced clienteles?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 127-159, February.
    11. Vassilis A. Efthymiou & George N. Leledakis, 2014. "The price impact of the disposition effect on the ex-dividend day of NYSE and AMEX common stocks," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(4), pages 711-724, April.
    12. Katsushi Suzuki, 2015. "Unique Dividends for Retail Shareholders: Evidence from Shareholder Perks," Discussion Papers 2015-20, Kobe University, Graduate School of Business Administration.
    13. Jakob, Keith J. & Ma, Tongshu, 2007. "Are ex[hyphen (true graphic)]day dividend clientele effects dead? Dividend yield versus dividend size," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 14(5), pages 718-735, December.
    14. Asimakopoulos, Panagiotis N. & Tsangarakis, Nickolaos V. & Tsiritakis, Emmanuel D., 2015. "Price adjustment method and ex-dividend day returns in a different institutional setting," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 1-12.
    15. Frankfurter, George M. & Wood, Bob Jr., 2002. "Dividend policy theories and their empirical tests," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 111-138.
    16. Castillo, Augusto & Jakob, Keith, 2006. "The Chilean ex-dividend day," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 105-118, September.
    17. Sorjonen, Pasi, 2002. "Ex-Dividend Day Behavior of Stock Prices in Finland in 1989-90 and 1993-97," Discussion Papers 674, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy.
    18. Keith Jakob & Ryan Whitby, 2017. "The impact of nominal stock price on ex-dividend price responses," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 48(4), pages 939-953, May.
    19. Maria Rosa Borges, 2007. "An Arbitrage Model for the Stock Price Adjustment in the Dividend Period," Working Papers Department of Economics 2007/09, ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics and Management, Department of Economics, Universidade de Lisboa.
    20. Apostolos Dasilas, 2009. "The ex-dividend day stock price anomaly: evidence from the Greek stock market," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 23(1), pages 59-91, March.

    More about this item

    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:jfinec:v:47:y:1998:i:2:p:161-188. 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/505576 .

    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.