IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jfinec/v137y2020i3p815-836.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Active catering to dividend clienteles: Evidence from takeovers

Author

Listed:
  • Golubov, Andrey
  • Lasfer, Meziane
  • Vitkova, Valeriya

Abstract

We use merger-induced changes to shareholder structure to test for active catering to dividend clienteles. Following mergers, acquirers adjust their dividend payout toward that of the target, but only when they inherit target shareholders through stock swaps. This adjustment is stronger when legacy shareholders are more influential and reveal a greater preference for dividends through portfolio holdings and trading behavior. Country-level differences in dividend taxes, governance quality, and population age further shape the extent of adjustment in ways consistent with dividend preferences. Pre-closing, differences in dividend payout discourage the use of stock as a payment method.

Suggested Citation

  • Golubov, Andrey & Lasfer, Meziane & Vitkova, Valeriya, 2020. "Active catering to dividend clienteles: Evidence from takeovers," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(3), pages 815-836.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jfinec:v:137:y:2020:i:3:p:815-836
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jfineco.2020.04.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304405X20300830
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jfineco.2020.04.002?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. Eugene F. Fama & Kenneth R. French, 2001. "Disappearing Dividends: Changing Firm Characteristics Or Lower Propensity To Pay?," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 14(1), pages 67-79, March.
    2. Espen Eckbo, B. & Verma, Savita, 1994. "Managerial shareownership, voting power, and cash dividend policy," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 33-62, March.
    3. Marco Di Maggio & Amir Kermani & Kaveh Majlesi, 2020. "Stock Market Returns and Consumption," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 75(6), pages 3175-3219, December.
    4. Michael J. Barclay & Clifford G. Holderness & Dennis P. Sheehan, 2009. "Dividends and Corporate Shareholders," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(6), pages 2423-2455, June.
    5. Malcolm Baker & Stefan Nagel & Jeffrey Wurgler, 2007. "The Effect of Dividends on Consumption," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 38(1), pages 231-292.
    6. 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.
    7. Martin Jacob & Roni Michaely, 2017. "Taxation and Dividend Policy: The Muting Effect of Agency Issues and Shareholder Conflicts," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 30(9), pages 3176-3222.
    8. Del Guercio, Diane, 1996. "The distorting effect of the prudent-man laws on institutional equity investments," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 31-62, January.
    9. DeAngelo, Harry & DeAngelo, Linda & Skinner, Douglas J, 1992. "Dividends and Losses," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(5), pages 1837-1863, December.
    10. Floyd, Eric & Li, Nan & Skinner, Douglas J., 2015. "Payout policy through the financial crisis: The growth of repurchases and the resilience of dividends," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(2), pages 299-316.
    11. Desai, Mihir A. & Jin, Li, 2011. "Institutional tax clienteles and payout policy," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(1), pages 68-84, April.
    12. Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez‐de‐Silanes & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 2000. "Agency Problems and Dividend Policies around the World," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(1), pages 1-33, February.
    13. repec:bla:jfinan:v:59:y:2004:i:3:p:1125-1165 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Doron Nissim & Amir Ziv, 2001. "Dividend Changes and Future Profitability," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(6), pages 2111-2133, December.
    15. John, Kose & Knyazeva, Anzhela & Knyazeva, Diana, 2011. "Does geography matter? Firm location and corporate payout policy," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(3), pages 533-551, September.
    16. Alzahrani, Mohammed & Lasfer, Meziane, 2012. "Investor protection, taxation, and dividends," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 745-762.
    17. Bolster, Paul J. & Janjigian, Vahan, 1991. "Dividend Policy and Valuation Effects of the Tax Reform Act of 1986," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 44(4), pages 511-518, December.
    18. Djankov, Simeon & La Porta, Rafael & Lopez-de-Silanes, Florencio & Shleifer, Andrei, 2008. "The law and economics of self-dealing," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(3), pages 430-465, June.
    19. Li, Wei & Lie, Erik, 2006. "Dividend changes and catering incentives," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(2), pages 293-308, May.
    20. Merton H. Miller & Franco Modigliani, 1961. "Dividend Policy, Growth, and the Valuation of Shares," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34, pages 411-411.
    21. Gustavo Grullon & Roni Michaely & Bhaskaran Swaminathan, 2002. "Are Dividend Changes a Sign of Firm Maturity?," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 75(3), pages 387-424, July.
    22. Samuel M. Hartzmark & David H. Solomon, 2019. "The Dividend Disconnect," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 74(5), pages 2153-2199, October.
    23. Franklin Allen & Antonio E. Bernardo & Ivo Welch, 2000. "A Theory of Dividends Based on Tax Clienteles," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(6), pages 2499-2536, December.
    24. Shefrin, Hersh M. & Statman, Meir, 1984. "Explaining investor preference for cash dividends," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 253-282, June.
    25. Baker, Malcolm & Coval, Joshua & Stein, Jeremy C., 2007. "Corporate financing decisions when investors take the path of least resistance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(2), pages 266-298, May.
    26. Lee Pinkowitz & René Stulz & Rohan Williamson, 2006. "Does the Contribution of Corporate Cash Holdings and Dividends to Firm Value Depend on Governance? A Cross‐country Analysis," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(6), pages 2725-2751, December.
    27. Harris, Lawrence E. & Hartzmark, Samuel M. & Solomon, David H., 2015. "Juicing the dividend yield: Mutual funds and the demand for dividends," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(3), pages 433-451.
    28. Brian J. Bushee, 2001. "Do Institutional Investors Prefer Near†Term Earnings over Long†Run Value?," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 18(2), pages 207-246, June.
    29. Ugur Lel & Darius P. Miller, 2015. "Does Takeover Activity Cause Managerial Discipline? Evidence from International M&A Laws," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 28(6), pages 1588-1622.
    30. Amihud, Yakov, 2002. "Illiquidity and stock returns: cross-section and time-series effects," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 31-56, January.
    31. Bolster, Paul J. & Janjigian, Vahan, 1991. "Dividend Policy and Valuation Effects of the Tax Reform Act of 1986," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 44(4), pages 511-18, December.
    32. Hartzmark, Samuel M. & Solomon, David H., 2013. "The dividend month premium," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(3), pages 640-660.
    33. Bo Becker & Zoran Ivković & Scott Weisbenner, 2011. "Local Dividend Clienteles," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(2), pages 655-683, April.
    34. John R. Graham & Alok Kumar, 2006. "Do Dividend Clienteles Exist? Evidence on Dividend Preferences of Retail Investors," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(3), pages 1305-1336, June.
    35. Dhaliwal, Dan S. & Erickson, Merle & Trezevant, Robert, 1999. "A Test of the Theory of Tax Clienteles for Dividend Policies," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 52(n. 2), pages 179-94, June.
    36. 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.
    37. Rossi, Stefano & Volpin, Paolo F., 2004. "Cross-country determinants of mergers and acquisitions," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(2), pages 277-304, November.
    38. DeAngelo, Harry & DeAngelo, Linda & Stulz, Rene M., 2006. "Dividend policy and the earned/contributed capital mix: a test of the life-cycle theory," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(2), pages 227-254, August.
    39. Dessaint, Olivier & Golubov, Andrey & Volpin, Paolo, 2017. "Employment protection and takeovers," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(2), pages 369-388.
    40. Hanlon, Michelle & Hoopes, Jeffrey L., 2014. "What do firms do when dividend tax rates change? An examination of alternative payout responses," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(1), pages 105-124.
    41. Yaniv Grinstein & Roni Michaely, 2005. "Institutional Holdings and Payout Policy," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(3), pages 1389-1426, June.
    42. Michaely, Roni & Thaler, Richard H & Womack, Kent L, 1995. "Price Reactions to Dividend Initiations and Omissions: Overreaction or Drift?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 50(2), pages 573-608, June.
    43. Easterbrook, Frank H, 1984. "Two Agency-Cost Explanations of Dividends," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(4), pages 650-659, September.
    44. Bushee, BJ & Noe, CF, 2000. "Corporate disclosure practices, institutional investors, and stock return volatility," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38, pages 171-202.
    45. John, Kose & Knyazeva, Anzhela & Knyazeva, Diana, 2015. "Governance and Payout Precommitment," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 101-117.
    46. George J. Papaioannou & Craig M. Savarese, 1994. "Corporate Dividend Policy Response to the Tax Reform Act of 1986," Financial Management, Financial Management Association, vol. 23(1), Spring.
    47. Holmen, Martin & Knopf, John D. & Peterson, Stefan, 2008. "Inside shareholders' effective tax rates and dividends," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(9), pages 1860-1869, September.
    48. Lewellen, Wilbur G, et al, 1978. "Some Direct Evidence on the Dividend Clientele Phenomenon," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 33(5), pages 1385-1399, December.
    49. Kale, Jayant R. & Kini, Omesh & Payne, Janet D., 2012. "The Dividend Initiation Decision of Newly Public Firms: Some Evidence on Signaling with Dividends," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 47(2), pages 365-396, April.
    50. Dhaliwal, Dan S. & Erickson, Merle & Trezevant, Robert, 1999. "A Test of the Theory of Tax Clienteles for Dividend Policies," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 52(2), pages 179-194, 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. Cave, Joshua & Lancheros, Sandra, 2024. "Local peer influence on dividend payout decisions," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    2. Yilin Luo & Chenkai Ni & James Thewissen, 2024. "Currency flotation and dividend policies: Evidence from China's central parity reform," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 53(1), pages 145-174, March.
    3. Kontoghiorghes, Alex, 2022. "Do personal taxes affect investment decisions and stock returns?," Bank of England working papers 988, Bank of England.
    4. Benjamin Amoah, 2024. "The story of dividend payment and corporate cash flow in Ghana," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 36(1), pages 30-40, March.
    5. Lin, Jing & Li, Fang & Zheng, Steven Xiaofan & Zhou, Mingshan, 2023. "Minority shareholder voting and dividend policy," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    6. Giuli, Alberta Di & Karmaziene, Egle & Sekerci, Naciye, 2021. "Common ownership and firm dividend policies," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 40(C).
    7. Bräuer, Konstantin & Hackethal, Andreas & Hanspal, Tobin, 2020. "Consuming dividends," SAFE Working Paper Series 280, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
    8. Huang, Yin-Siang & Lee, Cheng-Few & Lin, Chih-Yung, 2023. "Applications of fixed effect models to managerial risk-taking incentives," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 249-261.
    9. Alexandridis, George & Hoepner, Andreas G.F. & Huang, Zhenyi & Oikonomou, Ioannis, 2022. "Corporate social responsibility culture and international M&As," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(1).
    10. Allaudeen Hameed & Jing Xie & Yuxiang Zhong, 2024. "Preferences for dividends and stock returns around the world," Working Papers 202405, University of Macau, Faculty of Business Administration.
    11. Thomas J. Chemmanur & Zeyu Sun & Jing Xie, 2024. "Keeping up with the Joneses: Corporate Dividends and Common Institutional Blockholders," Working Papers 202407, University of Macau, Faculty of Business Administration.
    12. Boulifa, Hichem & Uchida, Konari, 2024. "Do share offerings increase payouts?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).

    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. Dahlquist, Magnus & Robertsson, Göran & Rydqvist, Kristian, 2014. "Direct evidence of dividend tax clienteles," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 1-12.
    2. Breuer, Wolfgang & Rieger, M. Oliver & Soypak, K. Can, 2014. "The behavioral foundations of corporate dividend policy a cross-country analysis," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 247-265.
    3. 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.
    4. Cave, Joshua & Lancheros, Sandra, 2024. "Local peer influence on dividend payout decisions," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    5. du Jardin, Philippe & Séverin, Eric, 2011. "Dividend policy," MPRA Paper 44382, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. 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.
    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. Alzahrani, Mohammed & Lasfer, Meziane, 2012. "Investor protection, taxation, and dividends," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 745-762.
    9. Ye, Dezhu & Deng, Jie & Liu, Yi & Szewczyk, Samuel H. & Chen, Xiao, 2019. "Does board gender diversity increase dividend payouts? Analysis of global evidence," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 1-26.
    10. Renneboog, Luc & Trojanowski, Grzegorz, 2011. "Patterns in payout policy and payout channel choice," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 1477-1490, June.
    11. Barros, Victor & Verga Matos, Pedro & Miranda Sarmento, Joaquim, 2020. "What firm’s characteristics drive the dividend policy? A mixed-method study on the Euronext stock exchange," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 365-377.
    12. Hasan, Mostafa Monzur & Uddin, Mohammad Riaz, 2022. "Do intangibles matter for corporate policies? Evidence from organization capital and corporate payout choices," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    13. Kim, Soojung & Park, Soon Hong & Suh, Jungwon, 2018. "A J-shaped cross-sectional relation between dividends and firm value," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 857-877.
    14. Berzins, Janis & Bøhren, Øyvind & Stacescu, Bogdan, 2019. "Dividends and taxes: The moderating role of agency conflicts," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 583-604.
    15. Smith, Deborah Drummond & Pennathur, Anita K. & Marciniak, Marek R., 2017. "Why do CEOs agree to the discipline of dividends?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 38-48.
    16. Hameed, Allaudeen & Xie, Jing, 2019. "Preference for dividends and return comovement," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(1), pages 103-125.
    17. Thomas J. Chemmanur & Zeyu Sun & Jing Xie, 2024. "Keeping up with the Joneses: Corporate Dividends and Common Institutional Blockholders," Working Papers 202407, University of Macau, Faculty of Business Administration.
    18. Justin Hung Nguyen & Buhui Qiu, 2022. "The effect of skilled labor intensity on corporate dividend payouts," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(5-6), pages 963-1010, May.
    19. James, Hui & Benson, Bradley W. & Wu, Chen (Ken), 2017. "Does CEO ownership affect payout policy? Evidence from using CEO scaled wealth-performance sensitivity," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 328-345.
    20. Desai, Mihir A. & Jin, Li, 2011. "Institutional tax clienteles and payout policy," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(1), pages 68-84, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Dividend policy; Mergers and acquisitions; Clientele effect;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance
    • 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:jfinec:v:137:y:2020:i:3:p:815-836. 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/inca/505576 .

    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.