IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eis/articl/212alnajjar.html

The information content of cashflows in the context of dividend smoothing

Author

Listed:
  • Basil Al-Najjar
  • Yacine Belghitar

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the information content of cash flows in the context of dividend smoothing. Unlike previous studies, we propose a novel partial adjustment model based on cash flows, and compare it to Lintners (1956) model. The results show that UK firms smooth their cash flows and that cash flows are the key determinant of dividend policy. Moreover, our proposed dividend partial adjustment model has a lower adjustment coefficient than Lintners model, suggesting that our estimates are much closer to reality. The results are consistent across different measures of cash flows.

Suggested Citation

  • Basil Al-Najjar & Yacine Belghitar, 2012. "The information content of cashflows in the context of dividend smoothing," Economic Issues Journal Articles, Economic Issues, vol. 17(2), pages 57-70, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:eis:articl:212alnajjar
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.economicissues.org.uk/Files/2012/212Al-Najjar.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dechow, Patricia M. & Kothari, S. P. & L. Watts, Ross, 1998. "The relation between earnings and cash flows," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 133-168, May.
    2. 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.
    3. Myungsun Kim & William Kross, 2005. "The Ability of Earnings to Predict Future Operating Cash Flows Has Been Increasing—Not Decreasing," Journal of Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(5), pages 753-780, December.
    4. Varouj Aivazian & Laurence Booth & Sean Cleary, 2003. "Do Emerging Market Firms Follow Different Dividend Policies From U.S. Firms?," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 26(3), pages 371-387, September.
    5. Easterbrook, Frank H, 1984. "Two Agency-Cost Explanations of Dividends," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(4), pages 650-659, September.
    6. Arellano, Manuel & Bover, Olympia, 1995. "Another look at the instrumental variable estimation of error-components models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 29-51, July.
    7. Mark T. Leary & Roni Michaely, 2011. "Determinants of Dividend Smoothing: Empirical Evidence," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 24(10), pages 3197-3249.
    8. Aivazian, Varouj A. & Booth, Laurence & Cleary, Sean, 2006. "Dividend Smoothing and Debt Ratings," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 41(2), pages 439-453, June.
    9. Brav, Alon & Graham, John R. & Harvey, Campbell R. & Michaely, Roni, 2005. "Payout policy in the 21st century," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(3), pages 483-527, September.
    10. Andreas Charitou & Nikos Vafeas, 1998. "The Association Between Operating Cash Flows and Dividend Changes: An Empirical Investigation," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(1&2), pages 225-249.
    11. Ilan Guttman & Ohad Kadan & Eugene Kandel, 2010. "Dividend Stickiness and Strategic Pooling," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(12), pages 4455-4495, December.
    12. McDonald, John G. & Jacquillat, Bertrand & Nussenbaum, Maurice, 1975. "Dividend, Investment and Financing Decisions: Empirical Evidence on French Firms," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 10(5), pages 741-755, December.
    13. Andreas Charitou & Nikos Vafeas, 1998. "The Association Between Operating Cash Flows and Dividend Changes: An Empirical Investigation," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(1‐2), pages 225-249, January.
    14. Andres, Christian & Betzer, André & Goergen, Marc & Renneboog, Luc, 2009. "Dividend policy of German firms: A panel data analysis of partial adjustment models," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 175-187, March.
    15. 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.
    16. Basil Al‐Najjar, 2009. "Dividend behaviour and smoothing new evidence from Jordanian panel data," Studies in Economics and Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 26(3), pages 182-197, July.
    17. Blundell, Richard & Bond, Stephen, 1998. "Initial conditions and moment restrictions in dynamic panel data models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 115-143, August.
    18. 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.
    19. Roni Michaely & Michael R. Roberts, 2012. "Corporate Dividend Policies: Lessons from Private Firms," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 25(3), pages 711-746.
    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. Bassam M. ABU-ABBAS, 2021. "The Role of Dividends on Equity Valuation: Evidence from the GCC Countries," Journal for Economic Forecasting, Institute for Economic Forecasting, vol. 0(2), pages 162-180, June.
    2. Fernau, Erik & Hirsch, Stefan, 2019. "What drives dividend smoothing? A meta regression analysis of the Lintner model," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 255-273.

    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. Fernau, Erik & Hirsch, Stefan, 2019. "What drives dividend smoothing? A meta regression analysis of the Lintner model," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 255-273.
    2. 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).
    3. Javakhadze, David & Ferris, Stephen P. & Sen, Nilanjan, 2014. "An international analysis of dividend smoothing," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 200-220.
    4. 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.
    5. Booth, Laurence & Zhou, Jun, 2017. "Dividend policy: A selective review of results from around the world," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 1-15.
    6. García-Feijóo, Luis & Hossain, Md Miran & Javakhadze, David, 2021. "Managerial social capital and dividend smoothing," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    7. Francisca Bremberger & Carlo Cambini & Klaus Gugler & Laura Rondi, 2016. "Dividend Policy In Regulated Network Industries: Evidence From The Eu," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 54(1), pages 408-432, January.
    8. repec:ers:journl:v:v:y:2017:i:4:p:104-132 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Andres, Christian & Doumet, Markus & Fernau, Erik & Theissen, Erik, 2015. "The Lintner model revisited: Dividends versus total payouts," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 56-69.
    10. Filip Hampl & Dagmar Vágnerová Linnertová, 2025. "How the interaction between board gender diversity and ESG shapes dividend policy," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(2), pages 2472-2490, March.
    11. David S. Koo & Santhosh Ramalingegowda & Yong Yu, 2017. "The effect of financial reporting quality on corporate dividend policy," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 753-790, June.
    12. Enrico Onali, 2014. "Moral Hazard, Dividends, and Risk in Banks," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(1-2), pages 128-155, January.
    13. Andreas Charitou & Neophytos Lambertides & Giorgos Theodoulou, 2010. "The Effect of Past Earnings and Dividend Patterns on the Information Content of Dividends When Earnings Are Reduced," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 46(2), pages 153-187, June.
    14. ElBannan, Mona A., 2020. "Does catering behavior persist? Evidence on dividend sentiment in emerging financial markets," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 350-373.
    15. Cheng-few Lee & James Juichia Lin, 2023. "Generalized dividend behavior model and dividend smoothing: theory and empirical evidence," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 61(4), pages 1529-1561, November.
    16. 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.
    17. Sharier Azim Khan, 2021. "Leverage target and payout policy," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 44(1), pages 53-79, April.
    18. 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.
    19. 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.
    20. 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.
    21. Bøhren, Øyvind & Josefsen, Morten G. & Steen, Pål E., 2012. "Stakeholder conflicts and dividend policy," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(10), pages 2852-2864.

    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:eis:articl:212alnajjar. 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: Dan Wheatley (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/bsntuuk.html .

    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.