IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/corfin/v18y2012i4p968-979.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Payout policy in Brazil: Dividends versus interest on equity

Author

Listed:
  • Boulton, Thomas J.
  • Braga-Alves, Marcus V.
  • Shastri, Kuldeep

Abstract

We examine the impact of tax burden on cash distribution using a sample of Brazilian firms, which are allowed by law to distribute cash to shareholders in two forms: dividends and tax-advantaged interest on equity. The Brazilian institutional setting is superior to those used in prior studies that examine the choice between dividends and capital gains because, in some cases, dividends provide advantages that outweigh their negative tax consequences, leading firms to rationally choose payout policies that are not optimal when viewed only from the perspective of taxes. We find that taxes are a primary determinant of Brazilian firms’ payout policy decisions, as profitability and payout ratios (nonequity tax shields) are positively (negatively) related to the likelihood that a firm pays interest on equity. However, many firms continue to pay dividends despite the tax advantages of interest on equity payments. Abnormal returns around payout policy announcements suggest that these firms are, at least in part, catering to investor demand.

Suggested Citation

  • Boulton, Thomas J. & Braga-Alves, Marcus V. & Shastri, Kuldeep, 2012. "Payout policy in Brazil: Dividends versus interest on equity," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 968-979.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:corfin:v:18:y:2012:i:4:p:968-979
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2011.09.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0929119911001039
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2011.09.004?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brown, Stephen J. & Warner, Jerold B., 1985. "Using daily stock returns : The case of event studies," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 3-31, March.
    2. Alexander Klemm, 2007. "Allowances for Corporate Equity in Practice," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 53(2), pages 229-262, June.
    3. Miller, Merton H & Rock, Kevin, 1985. "Dividend Policy under Asymmetric Information," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 40(4), pages 1031-1051, September.
    4. MacKie-Mason, Jeffrey K, 1990. "Do Taxes Affect Corporate Financing Decisions?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 45(5), pages 1471-1493, December.
    5. repec:bla:jfinan:v:43:y:1988:i:1:p:1-19 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. 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.
    7. Korkeamaki, Timo & Liljeblom, Eva & Pasternack, Daniel, 2010. "Tax reform and payout policy: Do shareholder clienteles or payout policy adjust?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 572-587, September.
    8. DeAngelo, Harry & Masulis, Ronald W., 1980. "Optimal capital structure under corporate and personal taxation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 3-29, March.
    9. Thaler, Richard H & Shefrin, H M, 1981. "An Economic Theory of Self-Control," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 89(2), pages 392-406, April.
    10. Desai, Mihir A. & Dyck, Alexander & Zingales, Luigi, 2007. "Theft and taxes," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(3), pages 591-623, June.
    11. Raj Chetty & Emmanuel Saez, 2005. "Dividend Taxes and Corporate Behavior: Evidence from the 2003 Dividend Tax Cut," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 120(3), pages 791-833.
    12. Maynes, Elizabeth & Rumsey, John, 1993. "Conducting event studies with thinly traded stocks," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 145-157, February.
    13. Jeffrey R. Brown & Nellie Liang & Scott Weisbenner, 2007. "Executive Financial Incentives and Payout Policy: Firm Responses to the 2003 Dividend Tax Cut," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(4), pages 1935-1965, August.
    14. Alon Brav & John R. Graham & Campbell R. Harvey & Roni Michaely, 2008. "Managerial Response to the May 2003 Dividend Tax Cut," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 37(4), pages 611-624, December.
    15. Michaely, Roni, 1991. "Ex-dividend Day Stock Price Behavior: The Case of the 1986 Tax Reform Act," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 46(3), pages 845-859, July.
    16. Miller, Merton H, 1977. "Debt and Taxes," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 32(2), pages 261-275, May.
    17. 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.
    18. Pattenden, Kerry & Twite, Garry, 2008. "Taxes and dividend policy under alternative tax regimes," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 1-16, February.
    19. 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.
    20. Easterbrook, Frank H, 1984. "Two Agency-Cost Explanations of Dividends," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(4), pages 650-659, September.
    21. repec:bla:jfinan:v:59:y:2004:i:3:p:1125-1165 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. 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.
    23. Jennifer Blouin & Jana Raedy & Douglas Shackelford, 2010. "Dividends, Share Repurchases, and Tax Clienteles: Evidence from the 2003 Reductions in Shareholder Taxes," NBER Working Papers 16129, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    24. Bill B. Francis & Iftekhar Hasan & Kose John & Liang Song, 2011. "Corporate Governance and Dividend Payout Policy: A Test Using Antitakeover Legislation," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 40(1), pages 83-112, March.
    25. John, Kose & Williams, Joseph, 1985. "Dividends, Dilution, and Taxes: A Signalling Equilibrium," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 40(4), pages 1053-1070, September.
    26. Marcus V. Braga‐Alves & Kuldeep Shastri, 2011. "Corporate Governance, Valuation, and Performance: Evidence from a Voluntary Market Reform in Brazil," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 40(1), pages 139-157, March.
    27. Poterba, James M & Summers, Lawrence H, 1984. "New Evidence that Taxes Affect the Valuation of Dividends," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 39(5), pages 1397-1415, December.
    28. Shefrin, Hersh M. & Statman, Meir, 1984. "Explaining investor preference for cash dividends," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 253-282, June.
    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. Ed-Dafali, Slimane & Patel, Ritesh & Iqbal, Najaf, 2023. "A bibliometric review of dividend policy literature," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    2. Anwer, Zaheer & Mohamad, Shamsher & Paltrinieri, Andrea & Hassan, M. Kabir, 2021. "Dividend payout policy of Shariah compliant firms: Evidence from United States," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    3. Colombo, Jéfferson A. & Caldeira, João F., 2018. "The role of taxes and the interdependence among corporate financial policies: Evidence from a natural experiment," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 402-423.
    4. Forti, Cristiano & Schiozer, Rafael F., 2015. "Bank dividends and signaling to information-sensitive depositors," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 1-11.
    5. Márcio Telles Portal & Luís Laureano, 2015. "Rebound Effect of Allowance for Corporate Equity on Debt Bias," Working Papers Series 2 15-06, ISCTE-IUL, Business Research Unit (BRU-IUL).
    6. Al-Malkawi, Husam-Aldin Nizar & Ishaq Bhatti, M., 2020. "Are tests of dividend policy robust to estimation techniques: The case of an emerging economy?," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 541(C).
    7. Urszula Mrzyglod & Sabina Nowak & Magdalena Mosionek-Schweda & Jakub M. Kwiatkowski, 2021. "What drives the dividend decisions in BRICS countries?," Oeconomia Copernicana, Institute of Economic Research, vol. 12(3), pages 593-629, September.
    8. Mar𨁂el鮠Lozano & Simone Caltabiano, 2015. "Cross institutional cash and dividend policies: focusing on Brazilian firms," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(3), pages 239-254, January.
    9. von Eije, Henk & Goyal, Abhinav & Muckley, Cal B., 2017. "Flexible firm-level dividends in Latin America," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 133-136.
    10. Fernando Chague & Rodrigo De Losso, Bruno Giovannetti, 2018. "Individual Investors Look at Price Tags," Working Papers, Department of Economics 2018_17, University of São Paulo (FEA-USP).
    11. Portal, Márcio Telles & Laureano, Luis, 2017. "Does Brazilian allowance for corporate equity reduce the debt bias? Evidences of rebound effect and ownership-induced ACE clientele," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 480-495.

    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. Booth, Laurence & Zhou, Jun, 2017. "Dividend policy: A selective review of results from around the world," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 1-15.
    2. Balachandran, Balasingham & Khan, Arifur & Mather, Paul & Theobald, Michael, 2019. "Insider ownership and dividend policy in an imputation tax environment," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 153-167.
    3. Frankfurter, George M. & Wood, Bob Jr., 2002. "Dividend policy theories and their empirical tests," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 111-138.
    4. 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.
    5. Cave, Joshua & Lancheros, Sandra, 2024. "Local peer influence on dividend payout decisions," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    6. Jacob, Martin, 2010. "Taxation, Dividends, and Share Repurchases: Taking Evidence Global," Working Paper Series, Center for Fiscal Studies 2010:10, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.
    7. Balachandran, Balasingham & Nguyen, Justin Hung, 2018. "Does carbon risk matter in firm dividend policy? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in an imputation environment," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 249-267.
    8. Ahmad Ahmadpour & Mahmoud yahyazadefar & Babak Garmroudi, 2006. "The Influence of Agency Costs on Dividend Policy in an Emerging Market: “Evidence from the Tehran Stock Exchange”," Iranian Economic Review (IER), Faculty of Economics,University of Tehran.Tehran,Iran, vol. 11(1), pages 59-80, winter.
    9. du Jardin, Philippe & Séverin, Eric, 2011. "Dividend policy," MPRA Paper 44382, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Huizinga, Harry & Laeven, Luc & Nicodeme, Gaetan, 2008. "Capital structure and international debt shifting," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(1), pages 80-118, April.
    11. Jacob, Martin & Alstadsæter, Annette, 2013. "Payout policies of privately held firms: Flexibility and the role of income taxes," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 152, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre.
    12. William M. Gentry & R. Glenn Hubbard, 1998. "Fundamental Tax Reform and Corporate Financial Policy," NBER Working Papers 6433, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Maria Elisabete Duante Neves, 2017. "Payout and Firm's Catering," International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), vol. 0(4), pages 104-132.
    14. Szládek, Dániel, 2024. "Osztalékfizetés helyett részvény-visszavásárlás?. A részvény-visszavásárlások népszerűségének lehetséges okai [Share repurchases instead of dividend payments?. The evolution of payout policies and ," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(2), pages 154-175.
    15. Ouyang, Puman & Zhong, Ligang, 2023. "Asset redeployability and dividend payout policy," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 91-105.
    16. Nicolas Aubert, 2016. "Does the Catering Theory of Dividend Apply to the French Listed Firms?," Bankers, Markets & Investors, ESKA Publishing, issue 145, pages 27-38, November-.
    17. repec:ers:journl:v:v:y:2017:i:4:p:104-132 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Henry, Darren, 2011. "Ownership structure and tax-friendly dividends," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(10), pages 2747-2760, October.
    19. Kamal Anouar & Nicolas Aubert, 2016. "Does the catering theory of dividend apply to the French listed firms?," Working Papers halshs-01401867, HAL.
    20. Fayez A. Elayan & Jingyu Li & Maureen E. Donnelly & Allister W. Young, 2009. "Changes to Income Trust Taxation in Canada: Investor Reaction and Dividend Clientele Theory," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(5-6), pages 725-753.
    21. Lee, Sang-Yeob & Hong, Woo-Hyung, 2020. "Does tax really matter for corporate payout policy: Evidence from a policy experiment in South Korea," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Payout policy; interest on equity; dividends; taxes;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G35 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Payout Policy

    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:eee:corfin:v:18:y:2012:i:4:p:968-979. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jcorpfin .

    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.