This research paper makes an attempt at closing the gap in literature by testing agency considerations as an influencing factor for dividend policy of IPO firms. Dividend data of 642 firms from seven countries are used to make statistical interferences about the time it takes an IPO to issue dividend, influenced by different institutional factors of countries. An OLS is used to make these interferences. The results presented here indicate that there is a robust effect of legal enforcement on the time it takes before an IPO firm in a certain country pays its first dividend.

This study investigates the relationship between corporate sustainability and dividend policy in the Nordic countries. In the field of finance, the importance of corporate sustainability is growing, particularly in the Nordic countries, which excel in global sustainability rankings. In response to this occurrence many firms are increasingly incorporating sustainability into their operations, which in turn might affect the strategic decisions of these firms. One of these is the dividend policy decision. Dividend policy in the form of cash dividends is a central concept in finance and is affected by conservation of capital and time value of money. The purpose of this study is to clarify the relationship between sustainability and dividend policy, which the authors have done by including different theoretical arguments. These are grounded in the agency theory, the signaling theory and the stakeholder theory. Previous research such as Benlemlih (2019) has examined the relationship between sustainability and dividends, but not in the same regional setting. ESG is used as a proxy for sustainability, while two proxies are used for dividend policy; dividend payout ratio and dividend yield. Through a quantitative approach information is collected on the ESG score and dividend data using the Thomson Reuters Eikon database and then analyzed using regression analysis. The data spans over 10 years (2008-2018) and covers 117 firms with available ESG and dividend payout data.  The findings indicate that there is a significant relationship between the ESG score and the dividend payout ratio of Nordic firms, while the dividend yield has no relationship with the ESG score. As both measurements had positive coefficients, the authors determined that there is a positive relationship between sustainability and dividend policy. Based on the findings, the excess liquidity hypothesis was dismissed, while the authors concluded that there was support for and against the overinvesting hypothesis and the signaling hypothesis. The authors believe one possible explanation for these mixed results could be due to the regional setting, as it differs from the settings of previous studies. By illustrating the relationship between corporate sustainability and dividend policy, this study could be of interest to large and medium sized firms in the Nordic countries that use business strategies involving ESG practices or consider implementing such strategies. Similarly, it could be used by investors that use ESG-screening as a decision criterion when investing.

Syfte: Valet av utdelningspolitik är ett av de viktigaste och svåraste finansiella beslut som företag ställs inför. Samtidigt blir socialt ansvarstagande (CSR) en allt viktigare fråga för företagens lönsamhet då konsumenter och övriga intressenter blir allt mer medvetna och ställer allt högre krav på företagens ansvarstagande. Men om det finns ett samband mellan dessa två högt aktuella punkterna är oklart. Denna studie avser att studera hur CSR-nivå påverkar utdelningspolitiken, samt om olika dimensioner av CSR har olika effekt.   Metod: Studien tillhör kvantitativ forskning och tar avstamp från positivismen med en hypotetisk-deduktiv ansats. Studien är utförd med sekundärdata för åren 2009–2017 inhämtat från databasen Thomson Reuters. Urvalet består utav 207 europeiska börsnoterade företag och analysen genomfördes i statistikprogrammet IBM SPSS.   Resultat & slutsats: Studien visar att CSR inte påverkar beslutet om utdelning ska ges men har en positiv effekt på utdelning i de företag som ger utdelning, vilket indikerar att CSR inte reducerar utdelningen. Dimensionerna samhälle och bolagsstyrning har en positiv effekt på utdelning, medan miljödimensionen inte har något samband, vilket indikerar att aggregerad CSR kan ge missvisande resultat. Resultaten ger stöd för signaleringsteorin men inte för agentteorin.   Examensarbetets bidrag: Studien ger ett teoretiskt bidrag till den företagsekonomiska forskningen genom att studera och därmed även utveckla kunskapen om hur CSR-nivå, både aggregerat och uppdelat i dimensioner, påverkar utdelningspolitik. Studien ger ett praktiskt bidrag genom att hjälpa investerare i sina val och visa att spendera resurser på CSR inte reducerar kassaflödet som går till ägarna.   Förslag till fortsatt forskning: I studien har endast ett mått för utdelning används men inom litteraturen förekommer flera. Det skulle därmed vara intressant att använda flera olika mått för att se att detta inte förändrar resultaten. Även andra mått på CSR samt andra dimensioner skulle vara intressant att studera. Slutligen skulle det även kunna vara intressant att inkludera andra områden/länder i en liknande studie. / Aim: The choice of dividend policy is one of the most important and difficult financial decisions that a firm must face. Concurrently, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is becoming an increasingly more crucial question for the profitability of a firm, since consumers and other stakeholders are becoming more aware and have rising demands on the level of responsibility taken by firms. But if there is any correlation between these two highly current topics is unclear. This study aims to study how CSR-level affects the dividend policy, and if different dimensions of CSR have different effects.   Method: The study belongs to quantitative research and applies a positivistic research philosophy with a hypothetical-deductive approach. The study is made with secondary data for the years 2009-2017 retrieved from the database Thomson Reuters. The sample consists of 207 public European firms and the analysis was conducted in the statistics program IBM SPSS.   Result & Conclusions: The study show that CSR does not affect the decision whatever dividend should be distributed but has a positive effect on dividend in firms that does pay dividend, which indicate that CSR does not reduce dividend. The dimensions social and government have positive effects on dividend, while the dimension environment has no effect, which indicates that aggregated CSR can give misleading results. The results support signalling theory but not agent theory.   Contribution of the thesis: The study gives a theoretical contribution to business research by examining and therefore develop the knowledge about how CSR-level, both aggregated and divided in dimensions, affects dividend policy. The study gives a practical contribution by helping investors in their choices and show that spending resources on CSR does not reduce cash flows to owners.   Suggestions for future research: This study has only included one measurement for dividend but in the literature many occurs. Is could therefore be of interest to use several different measurements to see if this changes the results. Also, other measurements for CSR and other dimensions could be interesting to study. Finally, it could also be interesting to include other areas/countries in a similar study.

A alta concentração da propriedade e de controle nas empresas brasileiras, aliada à baixa proteção legal aos acionistas, pode gerar conflitos de agência entre os acionistas majoritários e minoritários. De acordo com a literatura fundamentada pela Teoria de Agência, o pagamento de dividendos poderia minimizar tais conflitos. Para a literatura de governança corporativa, por sua vez, empresas com melhores práticas de governança corporativa ofereceriam proteção mais forte aos seus acionistas, de modo que estes teriam poder para pressionar os gestores a pagar dividendos mais elevados. Neste contexto, o presente trabalho teve como objetivo investigar empiricamente se as empresas brasileiras utilizam a política de dividendos para minimizar os conflitos de agência entre os acionistas majoritários e minoritários e se boas práticas de governança corporativa aumentam a proteção aos acionistas. Para atingir o objetivo proposto, foram realizados testes econométricos para um modelo não explorado em estudos anteriores. Neste, foram incluídas, além das variáveis de controle justificadas pela literatura (possíveis determinantes da política de pagamento de dividendos), duas variáveis proxies para conflitos de agência: excesso de direito de voto em relação ao direito sobre o fluxo de caixa em posse do maior acionista e fluxo de caixa livre para os acionistas e uma variável proxy para melhores práticas de governança corporativa. As estimações foram realizadas usando o método Tobit em painel com informações, referentes ao período de 2000 a 2013, de 466 empresas brasileiras não financeiras listadas na BM&FBOVESPA. Os resultados encontrados sugerem que as empresas brasileiras de capital aberto não utilizam a política de dividendos como mecanismo de redução dos conflitos de agência entre os acionistas majoritários e minoritários. Esses resultados podem ser considerados robustos, uma vez que foram observados em especificações alternativas e quase todas as variáveis de controle foram estatisticamente significativas e apresentaram relações com o índice de payout conforme previsto pela literatura teórica e evidências da literatura empírica. Os resultados também mostraram indícios de que o baixo enforcement da legislação brasileira e os incentivos criados pela BM&FBOVESPA não garantem proteção aos acionistas, sinalizando a necessidade de realização de melhorias no sistema legal brasileiro / The high concentration of ownership and control in Brazilian companies, combined with low legal protection to shareholders, can generate agency conflicts between majority and minority shareholders. According to the literature grounded by the Agency Theory, the payment of dividends could minimize such conflicts. For the corporate governance literature, in turn, companies with best corporate governance practices would offer stronger protection to its shareholders, so that they would be able to pressure managers to pay higher dividends. In this context, this study aimed to empirically investigate whether Brazilian companies use the dividend policy to minimize the agency conflicts between majority and minority shareholders and whether good corporate governance practices increase shareholder protection. To achieve this purpose, have been conducted econometric tests for a model not explored in previous studies. In this were included, besides the control variables justified by the literature (possible determinants of dividend payout policy), two proxies for agency conflicts: excess voting right in relation to cash flow rights in the possession of greater shareholder and free cash flow to shareholders and a proxy variable for best corporate governance practices.000 The estimates were made using the Tobit method panel with information relating to the period from 2000 to 2013, 466 non-financial Brazilian companies listed on the BM&FBOVESPA. The results suggest that the publicly traded Brazilian companies do not use the dividend policy as a mechanism to reduce agency conflicts between majority and minority shareholders. These results can be considered robust, as were observed in alternative specifications and almost all control variables were statistically significant and had relations with the payout ratio as predicted by theoretical literature and evidence of the empirical literature. The results also showed evidence that the low enforcement of Brazilian legislation and the incentives created by BM & FBOVESPA does not guarantee protection to shareholders, pointing to the need of improvements in the Brazilian legal system

Esta pesquisa busca analisar a influência da tributação e da governança corporativa sobre as políticas de dividendos das companhias de capital aberto brasileiras no período de 1986 a 2011, através de estimações Probit e Tobit com dados em painel. Particularmente no Brasil houve diversas mudanças na legislação tributária dentro do período analisado, sendo assim uma boa oportunidade para esse estudo. Os resultados empíricos sugerem que: a) quando houve aumento no Lucro Por Ação, o percentual do lucro distribuído em forma de proventos foi maior nos períodos em que não houve incidência de tributação e menor quando houve incidência de tributação; b) companhias estatais distribuíram menos dividendos do que companhias privadas; c) companhias que distribuíram dividendos também distribuíram Juros Sobre Capital Próprio; d) companhias que possuem governança corporativa tendem a distribuir mais dividendos. / This paper investigates the influence of taxes and corporate governance on dividend policy of Brazilian public companies in the years 1986 to 2011, using panel data Probit and Tobit estimation. There are several tax law changes particularly in Brazil within the period analyzed, creating a good opportunity to study dividend policy. Empirical results suggests that (a) when Earnings Per Share increased, the percentage of profits distributed in the form of dividends was higher in periods in which there was no incidence of taxation and lower when there was incidence of taxation; (b) state owned companies paid less dividends than private companies; (c) companies that paid dividends also paid Interest On Equity Capital; (d) companies under corporate governance best practices tend to pay more dividends.

This study is an empirical examination of a new theory that links dividends to institutional ownership in a framework of both information signaling and agency costs. Under this theory put forth by Allen, Bernardo and Welch in 2000, dividends are paid out to attract tax-favored institutional investors, thereby signaling good firm quality and/or more efficient monitoring. This is based on the premise that institutions are considered sophisticated investors with superior ability and stronger incentive to be informed about the firm quality compared to retail investors. On the agency level, institutional investors display monitoring capabilities, and can detect and correct managerial pitfalls, thus their presence serves as an assurance that the firm will remain well run. The study provides a comprehensive analysis of the implications of the theory by testing various aspects of the relationship between dividends and institutional holdings. Unlike the prevalent literature on this topic, I give specific attention to the different types of institutional investors and their incentives to invest in dividend paying stocks. Moreover, I analyze the signaling and the agency effects on the market reaction to dividend initiations within the framework proposed by the theory. Finally, I test the smoothing effect institutions have on dividends by examining the firm's propensity to increase dividends given the level of institutional ownership. I find institutional holders to respond positively to dividend initiation announcements as they adjust their portfolios by buying or increasing their holdings of the dividend paying stock following the announcement. I also find that this response is displayed more strongly among tax-favored institutions. My test results also reveal that positive abnormal returns to dividend initiation announcements are a decreasing function of institutional holdings in the dividend initiating firm, and that this mitigating effect of institutional ownership on the market reaction to dividend initiations is stronger for firms with higher information asymmetry and more potential for agency problems. This evidence lends some degree of support to the tested theory. Additional support to lies in the test results of its smoothing hypothesis which reveal that as institutional ownership increases, the propensity of firms to increase dividends decreases.

一套能使企業成長與股東期望之間達到最適當均衡的股利政策對企業內、外部而言均是攸關且重要的資訊。決策者必須全面考量企業特性、經營環境之變化及股東的期盼，以規劃其股利政策；所以了解企業所處之成長階段及經營環境，對制定適當且均衡的股利政策是相當重要的。 本研究以民國七十九年至民國八十八年間，我國化工業、紡織業及電子業之上市公司為研究對象，首先劃分企業生命週期，並將股利政策定義為股利發放水準、股利發放形式及股利發放水準平穩程度等三個構面。本研究透過文獻探討，了解企業在各個生命週期階段所顯現的不同特性對股利政策的可能影響，再針對我國企業的股利發放實務作一了解，以分析其差異。 研究結果顯示，在股利發放水準方面，除了化工業之外，紡織業與電子業上市公司考量所處之生命週期階段，進而規劃適當股利政策的情形並不普遍。就股利發放形式而言，由實證結果可知，無論身處成長期或成熟期，化工業、紡織業以及電子業上市公司均偏好發放股票股利。至於股利發放水準平穩程度，紡織業以及電子業上市公司於成熟期時，總股利發放水準較處於成長期時穩定。 本研究之實證結果，隱喻企業管理當局可能並不瞭解其本身所處生命週期階段及相關經營背景；也可能是因為管理當局尚未能理解企業生命週期與股利政策間之關聯性及重要性，或者可能是管理當局必須遷就投資人之所好。由研究結果亦可得知，股利政策似與產業所面對的經營環境及營運架構有所關聯，企業之股利政策會因產業的不同而有所差異。 / A dividend policy that balanced the needs for firm growth and stockholders conveys important information for both managements and investors. Characteristics and operating environment of an organization and expectations of its shareholders are critical determinants for developing such dividend policies. The knowledge about the life-cycle stage a firm is currently at and its dividend policy planned accordingly is therefore essential for financial decisions and future growth of a firm. Focused on companies listed in Taiwan Stock Exchange in chemical, textile and electronics industries over the period of 1990 to 1999, this thesis empirically tests the association between the business life-cycle stages of the sample firms and their dividend policies. Specifically, this study examines the dividend policy in terms of level, form and stability of dividend payout levels. With respect to the level of dividend payout, the empirical evidence shows that the strong association between the life-cycle stage and dividend policy is evident in chemical industry. As to the form of dividend payout, the results indicate that across all stages of business life cycle and all three industries, firms are found to have a preference for distributing stock dividends rather than cash dividends. Moreover, the empirical findings suggest that as compared to mature stages, firms in textile and electronics industries are found to be associated with greater variance in total level of dividend payout at their growth stages. However, there is no significant cross-stage difference in variance of dividend payout level found for firms in chemical industry. The overall empirical evidence implies that firms studied in this thesis may concern a stable dividend payout policy is more important for an on-going operation. Exertion in making clear distinction about their business life-cycle stages is less essential. It is possible that management doesn’t realize a necessary linkage between business life-cycle stage and dividend policy. It is also likely that firms are simply satisfying the shareholders’preference for stock dividends distribution. In addition, the cross-industry differences in dividend policy practices found may result from the differences in characteristics and operating environment confronted by organizations.

Prior research on conservative accounting and bondholder-shareholder conflict show that firms with higher degree of conservatism experience less austere conflict and lower cost of debt. However, since the implementation of IFRS in 2005, conservatism has been widely reduced in favor of fair value principles. This study sets out to examine if accounting conservatism still mitigates the conflict and reduces cost of debt. We regress two measures of conservatism on three conflict proxies and debt cost, respectively, for firms on the Norwegian market. Our results support the conclusion that conservative accounting mitigates the bondholder-shareholder conflict even after the introduction of IFRS, but we find no significant evidence that bondholders reward high level of conservatism with lower cost of debt.

The aim of this study is to examine the dividend policy behavior of firms listed at Stockholm Stock Exchange from 2005-2011. We examine the behavior from a Market Cap (firm size) and industry classification (group characteristics) perspective due to the structure of Stockholm Stock Exchange, by using non-parametric methods and Lintner`s model. The conclusions are as follows: (i) Market Cap listing and industry classification matters for the propensity to pay dividends and we observe that firms in Mid Cap and Small Cap were more likely to pay dividends in 2011 than in 2005. (ii) Neither Market Cap listing nor industry classification affects the firms’ payout ratio. (iii) Market Cap listing affects the firms´ level of paid DPS (dividend per share) but not significantly when we compared firms in Large Cap to firms in Mid Cap. Industry classification affects the firms´ level of paid DPS. (iv) Current EPS (earnings per share) and past DPS are important factors for deciding current DPS when firms were classified into Market Caps, but not for all firms when they were classified into industries. (v) Firms follow regular but unstable dividend policies despite Market Cap listing. Firms in the Health Care industry follow irregular and unstable dividend policies while the firms in the other industries follow regular but unstable dividend policies.

This study examines the relationship between cash flow rights and dividend payout policy of listed family firms in Taiwan, an economy characterized by a predominance of family-controlled firms. Dividend payout levels are important because they are crucial to governing the firm and managing its investments. The empirical results show that at a low level of controlling families¡¦ cash flow rights, the threat to lose control any time makes controlling families claim more in dividends. This yields a positive relationship between dividend payout and the cash flow rights of controlling families. Meanwhile, at a moderate level of controlling families¡¦ cash flow rights, the entrenchment effect creates a negative relationship. Finally, at the very highest level of controlling families¡¦ cash flow rights, excessive firm-specific risk again yields a positive relationship. This nonmonotonic relationship between controlling family cash flow rights and dividend payout also holds for financially mature firms that have high earned to contributed capital mix.