IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jbfnac/v25y1998i9-10p1127-1155.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does the Pecking Order Hypothesis Explain the Dividend Payout Ratios of Firms in the UK?

Author

Listed:
  • Abimbola Adedeji

Abstract

This study tests the pecking order hypothesis on data of 224 firms in the UK over the period 1993–96 inclusive. Evidence observed supports the prediction of the hypothesis that there is a negative interaction between the long term value of dividend payout ratio and investment. The evidence also indicates that financial leverage has a positive interaction with dividend payout ratio but no significant interaction with investment. While investment has a significant positive influence on financial leverage, financial leverage does not have a significant influence on investment. It is also observed that irrecoverable advance corporation tax (ACT) has a positive, albeit weak, influence on dividend payout ratio and that overseas profit has a negative influence on the ratio. The results of the study agree with the previous evidence with regard to the influence of dividend payout ratio on investment and financial leverage, and the influence of investment on financial leverage. However, the results contradict the previous evidence reported by Baskin (1989) and Allen (1993) about the influence of financial leverage on investment. While the previous studies observed that financial leverage has a positive influence on investment, this study finds that financial leverage does not have a significant influence on investment. The main contributions of the study are that (1) it provides some evidence that there is a negative interaction between dividend payout ratio and investment and a positive interaction between dividend payout ratio and financial leverage, (2) it provides some evidence about the effects of overseas profit and irrecoverable ACT on dividend payout and (3) its results suggest that the recent abolition of the refund of ACT is justified on the ground that it may affect investment and growth in the UK.

Suggested Citation

  • Abimbola Adedeji, 1998. "Does the Pecking Order Hypothesis Explain the Dividend Payout Ratios of Firms in the UK?," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(9‐10), pages 1127-1155, November.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:jbfnac:v:25:y:1998:i:9-10:p:1127-1155
    DOI: 10.1111/1468-5957.00230
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-5957.00230
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1468-5957.00230?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Guanqun Tong & Christopher Green, 2005. "Pecking order or trade-off hypothesis? Evidence on the capital structure of Chinese companies," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(19), pages 2179-2189.
    2. Vivien Beattie & Alan Goodacre & Sarah Jane Thomson, 2006. "Corporate Financing Decisions: UK Survey Evidence," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(9‐10), pages 1402-1434, November.
    3. Sadiq, Misbah & Yousaf, Sheikh Usman & Anser, Muhammad Khalid & Rashid Khan, Haroon ur & Sriyanto, Sriyanto & Zaman, Khalid & Van Tu, Duong & Anis, Siti Nisrin Mohd, 2023. "The role of debt financing in the relationship between capital structure, firm’s value, and macroeconomic factors: To throw caution to the wind," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 212-223.
    4. Abdou, Hussein A. & Pointon, John & El-Masry, Ahmed & Olugbode, Moji & Lister, Roger J., 2012. "A variable impact neural network analysis of dividend policies and share prices of transportation and related companies," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 796-813.
    5. Yang, Bao & Chou, Hsin-I. & Zhao, Jing, 2020. "Innovation or dividend payout: Evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 180-203.
    6. Kartal Demirg ne, 2015. "Determinants of Target Dividend Payout Ratio: A Panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag Analysis," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 5(2), pages 418-426.
    7. James Ndegwa, 2020. "Effect of Default on Profitability in Kenyan Listed Companies," International Journal of Finance & Banking Studies, Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 9(4), pages 01-10, October.
    8. Josephat Lotto, 2020. "Towards Extending Dividend Puzzle Debate: What Motivates Distribution of Corporate Earnings in Tanzania?," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-14, March.
    9. Graham C. Hall & Patrick J. Hutchinson & Nicos Michaelas, 2004. "Determinants of the Capital Structures of European SMEs," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(5-6), pages 711-728.
    10. A.O. Olakunle & P.L. Jones, 2014. "Assessing the Impact of Size on the Capital Structure Choice for Listed Nigeria Firms," International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, vol. 4(7), pages 184-202, July.
    11. Hongfei Zhu, 2009. "The Relationship Between Investment and Fund Raising: An Empirical study to Japanese Manufacturing Firms," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 29(1), pages 357-367.
    12. Aggarwal, Raj & Kyaw, NyoNyo Aung, 2010. "Capital structure, dividend policy, and multinationality: Theory versus empirical evidence," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 140-150, March.
    13. Artur Morgado & Julio Pindado, 2003. "The Underinvestment and Overinvestment Hypotheses: an Analysis Using Panel Data," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 9(2), pages 163-177, June.
    14. Muhammad Azeem Qureshi, 2009. "Does pecking order theory explain leverage behaviour in Pakistan?," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(17), pages 1365-1370.
    15. Ding, Chao & Ho, Choy Yeing & Chang, Millicent, 2021. "CEO and CFO equity compensation and dividend payout over the firm lifecycle," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    16. Jubaedah & Ivan Yulivan & Abdul Razak Abdul Hadi, 2016. "The Influence of Financial Performance, Capital Structure and Macroeconomic Factors on Firm¡¯s Value ¨C Evidence from Textile Companies at Indonesia Stock Exchange," Applied Finance and Accounting, Redfame publishing, vol. 2(2), pages 18-29, August.
    17. 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.
    18. Mohamed Soufeljil & Asma Sghaier & Zouhayer Mighri & Hanène Kheireddine, 2017. "The financial structure of the Tunisian listed businesses: an application on panel data," Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, Springer;UNESCO Chair in Entrepreneurship, vol. 7(1), pages 1-25, December.
    19. Graham C. Hall & Patrick J. Hutchinson & Nicos Michaelas, 2004. "Determinants of the Capital Structures of European SMEs," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(5‐6), pages 711-728, June.
    20. Olivier Butzbach & Domenico Sarno, 2019. "To What Extent Do Regional Effects Influence Firms’ Capital Structure? The Case of Southern Italian SMEs’," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 7(1), pages 1-20, January.
    21. 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.
    22. Valérie Revest & Sandro Sapio, 2008. "Financing Technology-Based Small Firms in Europe: a review of the empirical evidence," LEM Papers Series 2008/23, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    23. Rana El Bahsh & Ali Alattar & Aziz N. Yusuf, 2018. "Firm, Industry and Country Level Determinants of Capital Structure: Evidence from Jordan," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 8(2), pages 175-190.

    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:bla:jbfnac:v:25:y:1998:i:9-10:p:1127-1155. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0306-686X .

    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.