The cash dividend payout ratio in Taiwan had declined slowly in past years, but it suddenly became higher and higher since 1998. The phenomenon gave me the motivation to try to find the reason why the trend of cash dividend payout ratio changed the direction. I first test the relationship between the characters of firms and their cash dividend payout ratios. The results declared that the market-to-book ratio, earning ability and firm size significantly influences the cash dividend payout ratio. Then I tried to test the catering theory to recognize if the change of cash dividend payout ratio trend can attribute to managers¡¦ desire to cater the demand of investors and found catering theory seems capable in explaining the phenomenon. But Hoberg and Prabhala (2007) indicated that if we take the risks into account, the catering theory can not sufficiently explain the change of the trend of cash dividend payout ratio. So I took Tax Integration and the risks which calculated by the methods of Fama and French (2003) into account to prove their perspectives. At last, the results revealed that the influence of catering were not very strong if we consider the risks of firms, but the influence of risks and Tax Integration has significantly great influences.

Baker and Wurgler(2004) propose a new view on dividend policy called a catering theory of dividends. Managers cater to investors by paying dividends when investors put a stock price premium on payers, and by not paying when investors prefer nonpayer. We connect the catering theory and the difference in the market structure among countries, and want to know in which market structure managers are more willing to care about investors’ demand and then decide to pay dividends or not. First, our study indicates that the catering theory of dividends proposed by Baker and Wurgler (2004) exists around the world. Second, our study shows that managers in a country with a developed stock market, with higher protection and with lower tax advantage pay more attention to what investors desire on dividends, while managers in the higher ownership concentration group care less about investors demand.

This study examines the potential relationship between companies' adaptation to shareholders' preferences for dividends in SEK and the number of shareholders, as well as whether this relationship varies across different age groups. Previous research has explored individuals' preferences for dividends and potential age-related differences in these preferences. There have also been studies investigating investors' preferences for dividend payments in Swedish companies. However, there is a knowledge gap regarding how dividend payments affect the number of shareholders, which justifies the need for this study. The study utilizes data from worldscope and datastream for publicly traded companies on the Stockholm Stock Exchange OMXSPI that paid dividends during the period of 2017-2019. To analyze the hypotheses, the study employs multivariate regressions. The results indicate some indications of a relationship, particularly between companies' adaptation to shareholders' preferences for dividends in SEK and the number of shareholders in the 60+ age group. The study's findings also suggest weak but not statistically significant tendencies towards a more general relationship between dividend payments and all shareholders during the years 2017-2019.

有關於現金股利的發放，在國外多數的研究都發現整體市場現金股利發放的比率都是呈現下滑的趨勢，但在台灣，自1997年之後現金股利發放比率卻呈現大幅上升，為了研究究竟何種原因造成了這樣的情形，本篇文章首先就公司特性的部分進行研究與分析，以瞭解究竟是否近來整體市場的公司特性出現明顯改變，造就出現金股利發放比率的大幅上升。研究結果顯示，未發現金股利公司的平均獲利能力與成長性在1997年之後都呈現急速下降並跌破零成為負值的情形存在，分析此種原因應該是有能力發放現金股利的公司無論規模大小、獲利能力高低抑或成長性強弱都選擇進行現金股利的發放，反觀不發現金股利公司都只剩下無成長性且公司獲利狀況不佳以致於無力發行現金股利的公司。為進一步探究為何有能力發行現金股利的公司通通都開始進行現金股利的發放，我們在此選用Baker and Wurgler(2004)所提出的討好理論(catering theory)作為我們現金股利發放比率產生顯著提升的主要關鍵，經過實證研究結果發現討好理論的確對於台灣股票市場產生影響，另外我們也探討出影響投資人對於現金股利的需求強弱可能與兩稅合一的實行、政治風險的大小以及股票市場周轉率的大小有著密切的關連性。