Do market differences matter on dividend policy?

Tekin H., POLAT A. Y.

BORSA ISTANBUL REVIEW, cilt.21, sa.2, ss.197-208, 2021 (SSCI) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 21 Sayı: 2
  • Basım Tarihi: 2021
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1016/j.bir.2020.10.009
  • Dergi Adı: BORSA ISTANBUL REVIEW
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, EconLit, Directory of Open Access Journals
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.197-208
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: Alternative investment market, Dividend policy, Financial crisis, SHAREHOLDER RIGHTS, FINANCIAL CRISIS, PAYOUT POLICY, AGENCY COSTS, REPURCHASES, GROWTH, FIRM, US
  • Abdullah Gül Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

We investigate the dividend policies of firms in the United Kingdom to understand whether firms in different markets use dividends as a signaling or disciplining device. The sample consists of 1247 firms from the highly regulated Main Market (MAIN) and relatively unregulated Alternative Investment Market (AIM) for the period 2002-2017. We find that firms in AIM pay lower dividends than their MAIN counterparts. However, during turbulence, AIM firms decrease dividends lower than MAIN firms. In line with the signaling hypothesis, AIM firms with increased profitability are more likely to increase dividends. These results suggest that AIM firms depend more on the signaling feature of the dividends, whereas MAIN firms use dividends as a disciplining device to limit managerial discretion. Specifically, we find that AIM firms facing bigger agency problems pay lower dividends compared to other AIM firms, in line with the outcome view of agency theory. Copyright (C) 2020, Borsa Istanbul Anonim Sirketi. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V.