IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/tiu/tiutil/a82281ef-f247-479f-a0e3-127b6e26eaa2.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Control Structures and Payout Policy

Author

Listed:
  • Renneboog, L.D.R.

    (Tilburg University, TILEC)

  • Trojanowski, G.

    (Tilburg University, TILEC)

Abstract

Purpose - This paper seeks to examine whether or not divident policy is influenced by the firm's corporate control structure, investigating the relationship between the dynamics of earnings payout and the voting power enjoyed by different types of shareholders. This allows one to test a set of hypotheses derived from agency and pecking order theories. Design/methodology/approach - A large panel of UK firms for the 1990s and is analyzed that the payout policy is significantly related to control concentration. The problem of control measurement is addressed and the use of Banzhaf indices advocated as a relevant measure of voting power in the analysis of corporate policy choices. The traditional framework proposed by Linter is extended and an econometrically sound approach to modeling the dynamics of the total payout suggested. Where most – even recent – studies on payout policy show some methodological flaws, state-of-the-art dynamic panel data estimation procedures are applied. Findings - Expectedly, profitability is a crucial determinant of payout decisions, but the presence of strong block holders or block holder coalitions weakens the relationship between the corporate earnings and the payout dynamics. Block holders appear to realize that an overly generous payout may render the company liquidity constrained, and, consequently, result in suboptimal investment policy. Practical implications - The results challenge some of the implications of the agency theories of payout, and favor a pecking-order explanation for the observed patterns. The analysis of payout dynamics reveals also that companies adjust payout policies to changes in earnings only gradually, which is consistent with “dividend smoothing”. In fact, the results suggest a presence of a more general phenomenon of the “total payout smoothing”. Originality/value - According to one's bet knowledge, this is the first study employing those game theory-based concepts in the context of corporate payout policies.<
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Renneboog, L.D.R. & Trojanowski, G., 2005. "Control Structures and Payout Policy," Discussion Paper 2005-014, Tilburg University, Tilburg Law and Economic Center.
    • Handle: RePEc:tiu:tiutil:a82281ef-f247-479f-a0e3-127b6e26eaa2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://pure.uvt.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/775905/2005-014.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bond, Stephen R & Chennells, Lucy & Devereux, Michael P, 1996. "Taxes and Company Dividends: A Microeconometric Investigation Exploiting Cross-Section Variation in Taxes," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 106(435), pages 320-333, March.
    2. Stewart C. Myers & Nicholas S. Majluf, 1984. "Corporate Financing and Investment Decisions When Firms Have InformationThat Investors Do Not Have," NBER Working Papers 1396, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Myers, Stewart C. & Majluf, Nicholas S., 1984. "Corporate financing and investment decisions when firms have information that investors do not have," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 187-221, June.
    4. Espen Eckbo, B. & Verma, Savita, 1994. "Managerial shareownership, voting power, and cash dividend policy," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 33-62, March.
    5. Smith, Clifford Jr. & Watts, Ross L., 1992. "The investment opportunity set and corporate financing, dividend, and compensation policies," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 263-292, December.
    6. 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.
    7. Eugene F. Fama, 2002. "Testing Trade-Off and Pecking Order Predictions About Dividends and Debt," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 15(1), pages 1-33, March.
    8. Lasfer, M. Ameziane, 1996. "Taxes and dividends: The UK evidence," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 455-472, April.
    9. Kalay, Avner, 1980. "Signaling, Information Content, and the Reluctance to Cut Dividends," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 15(4), pages 855-869, November.
    10. Leonie Bell & Tim Jenkinson, 2002. "New Evidence of the Impact of Dividend Taxation and on the Identity of the Marginal Investor," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(3), pages 1321-1346, June.
    11. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    12. Gustavo Grullon & Roni Michaely, 2002. "Dividends, Share Repurchases, and the Substitution Hypothesis," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(4), pages 1649-1684, August.
    13. Grzegorz Pawlina & Luc Renneboog, 2005. "Is Investment‐Cash Flow Sensitivity Caused by Agency Costs or Asymmetric Information? Evidence from the UK," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 11(4), pages 483-513, September.
    14. Lucas, Deborah J. & McDonald, Robert L., 1998. "Shareholder Heterogeneity, Adverse Selection, and Payout Policy," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 33(2), pages 233-253, June.
    15. 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.
    16. Gugler, Klaus, 2003. "Corporate governance, dividend payout policy, and the interrelation between dividends, R&D, and capital investment," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(7), pages 1297-1321, 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. Crespi, R. & Renneboog, L.D.R., 2003. "Corporate monitoring by shareholder coalitions in the UK," Other publications TiSEM f7b7fa79-dcc7-4499-8281-e, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    19. Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez‐de‐Silanes & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 2000. "Agency Problems and Dividend Policies around the World," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(1), pages 1-33, February.
    20. 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.
    21. Goergen, Marc & Renneboog, Luc, 2001. "Investment policy, internal financing and ownership concentration in the UK," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 257-284, September.
    22. 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.
    23. Dan S. Felsenthal & Moshé Machover, 1998. "The Measurement of Voting Power," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 1489.
    24. Dennis Oswald & Steven Young, 2004. "What Role Taxes and Regulation? A Second Look at Open Market Share Buyback Activity in the UK," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(1‐2), pages 257-292, January.
    25. Franks, Julian & Mayer, Colin & Renneboog, Luc, 2001. "Who Disciplines Management in Poorly Performing Companies?," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 10(3-4), pages 209-248, July.
    26. repec:bla:jfinan:v:59:y:2004:i:3:p:1125-1165 is not listed on IDEAS
    27. Jim Lai & Sudi Sudarsanam, 1997. "Corporate Restructuring in Response to Performance Decline: Impact of Ownership, Governance and Lenders," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 1(2), pages 197-233.
    28. Fluck, Zsuzsanna, 1999. "The Dynamics of the Management-Shareholder Conflict," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 12(2), pages 379-404.
    29. G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), 2003. "Handbook of the Economics of Finance," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 1, number 1.
    30. 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.
    31. 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.
    32. J. W. Milnor & L. S. Shapley, 1978. "Values of Large Games II: Oceanic Games," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 3(4), pages 290-307, November.
    33. Dennis Oswald & Steven Young, 2004. "What Role Taxes and Regulation? A Second Look at Open Market Share Buyback Activity in the UK," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(1-2), pages 257-292.
    34. 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.
    35. Shapley, L. S. & Shubik, Martin, 1954. "A Method for Evaluating the Distribution of Power in a Committee System," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 48(3), pages 787-792, September.
    36. 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.
    37. 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.
    38. Myers, Stewart C., 1977. "Determinants of corporate borrowing," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 147-175, November.
    39. Klaus Gugler, 2003. "Corporate governance and investment," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(3), pages 261-289.
    40. Leech, Dennis, 2002. "Shareholder Voting Power and Ownership Control of Companies," Economic Research Papers 269335, University of Warwick - Department of Economics.
    41. Crama, Y. & Leruth, L. & Renneboog, L.D.R., 2003. "Corporate control concentration measurement and firm performance," Discussion Paper 17, Tilburg University, Tilburg Law and Economic Center.
    42. 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.
    43. Correia da Silva, Luis & Goergen, Marc & Renneboog, Luc, 2004. "Dividend Policy and Corporate Governance," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199259304.
    44. 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.
    45. Gugler, Klaus & Yurtoglu, B. Burcin, 2003. "Corporate governance and dividend pay-out policy in Germany," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(4), pages 731-758, August.
    46. Myers, Stewart C., 1984. "Capital structure puzzle," Working papers 1548-84., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management.
    47. Jensen, Gerald R. & Solberg, Donald P. & Zorn, Thomas S., 1992. "Simultaneous Determination of Insider Ownership, Debt, and Dividend Policies," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 27(2), pages 247-263, June.
    48. Easterbrook, Frank H, 1984. "Two Agency-Cost Explanations of Dividends," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(4), pages 650-659, September.
    49. Myers, Stewart C, 1984. "The Capital Structure Puzzle," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 39(3), pages 575-592, July.
    50. P. Raghavendra Rau & Theo Vermaelen, 2002. "Regulation, Taxes, and Share Repurchases in the United Kingdom," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 75(2), pages 245-282, April.
    51. 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.
    52. Stewart C. Myers, 1984. "Capital Structure Puzzle," NBER Working Papers 1393, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    53. Manuel Arellano & Stephen Bond, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 58(2), pages 277-297.
    54. G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), 2003. "Handbook of the Economics of Finance," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 1, number 2.
    55. Dennis Leech, 2002. "Shareholder Voting Power and Ownership Control of Companies," Homo Oeconomicus, Institute of SocioEconomics, vol. 19, pages 345-371.
    56. 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. 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.
    2. John Elim, 2019. "Model of Firm Value Indonesian Stock Exchange Case," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 9(3), pages 154-162.
    3. Andrew Benito & Garry Young, 2007. "Financial Pressure and Balance Sheet Adjustment by Firms," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 69(5), pages 581-602, October.
    4. P. Du Jardin & E. Séverin, 2011. "Dividend policy," Post-Print hal-00801923, HAL.
    5. 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.
    6. Houda Qasim Aleqedat & Sara Zakaria AL-Rawash, 2020. "International Journal of Business and Social Research (IJBSR)7The Impacts of Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions and Ownership Structure on Dividend Policy of Financial Sectors in Jordan," Journal of Business, LAR Center Press, vol. 5(1), pages 07-25, January.
    7. Julio Pindado & Chabela De La Torre, 2006. "The Role of Investment, Financing and Dividend Decisions in Explaining Corporate Ownership Structure: Empirical Evidence from Spain," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 12(5), pages 661-687, November.
    8. Amitava Roy, 2015. "Dividend Policy, Ownership Structure and Corporate Governance: An Empirical Analysis of Indian Firms," Indian Journal of Corporate Governance, , vol. 8(1), pages 1-33, June.

    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. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. 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).
    5. 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.
    6. 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.
    7. 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.
    8. du Jardin, Philippe & Séverin, Eric, 2011. "Dividend policy," MPRA Paper 44382, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. 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.
    10. Grzegorz Pawlina & Luc Renneboog, 2005. "Is Investment‐Cash Flow Sensitivity Caused by Agency Costs or Asymmetric Information? Evidence from the UK," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 11(4), pages 483-513, September.
    11. 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.
    12. 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.
    13. Shumi Akhtar, 2018. "Dividend payout determinants for Australian Multinational and Domestic Corporations," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 58(1), pages 11-55, March.
    14. Jabbouri, Imad, 2016. "Determinants of corporate dividend policy in emerging markets: Evidence from MENA stock markets," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 283-298.
    15. Mário Santos & António Moreira & Elisabete Vieira, 2014. "Ownership concentration, contestability, family firms, and capital structure," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 18(4), pages 1063-1107, November.
    16. Mai, Nhat Chi, 2012. "Market timing, taxes and capital structure: evidence from Vietnam," OSF Preprints t3mvs, Center for Open Science.
    17. Chai, D.H., 2010. "Foreign Corporate Ownership and Dividends," Working Papers wp401, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    18. Renneboog, Luc & Trojanowski, Grzegorz, 2011. "Patterns in payout policy and payout channel choice," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 1477-1490, June.
    19. Mahboubeh Bahreini & Cahit Adaoglu, 2018. "Dividend payouts of travel and leisure companies in Western Europe," Tourism Economics, , vol. 24(7), pages 801-820, November.
    20. Hui Liang James & Hongxia Wang, 2021. "Independent director tenure and dividends," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(5-6), pages 1057-1091, May.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • G35 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Payout Policy
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General

    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:tiu:tiutil:a82281ef-f247-479f-a0e3-127b6e26eaa2. 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: Richard Broekman (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.tilburguniversity.edu/research/institutes-and-research-groups/center-ar/ .

    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.