IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/pacfin/v17y2009i2p209-223.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Dividends for tunneling in a regulated economy: The case of China

Author

Listed:
  • Chen, Donghua
  • Jian, Ming
  • Xu, Ming

Abstract

Some Chinese listed companies pay out high dividends, despite the weak legal and institutional pressure on them to mitigate agency problems by paying dividends. We conjecture that such a phenomenon is caused by the differential pricing for tradable and non-tradable shares during the IPO of these listed companies. Such companies might use high-dividend payments to divert proceeds from an IPO or rights issue to controlling shareholders' pockets. The empirical results support our hypotheses, showing that companies with more differential pricing in the IPO, a recent IPO or rights issue, or more concentrated ownership tend to pay more dividends. Similarly, companies that are ultimately owned by the government tend to pay more dividends. Furthermore, a dividend increase accompanied by large IPO price discounts, a recent-year rights issue, an ROE qualified for rights issue, or great dividend variation is associated with more negative stock returns than other types of dividend increases. These findings indicate that dividends are not used purely for signaling or distributing free cash flows in China. Instead, dividends might be used by the controlling shareholders to engage in tunneling.

Suggested Citation

  • Chen, Donghua & Jian, Ming & Xu, Ming, 2009. "Dividends for tunneling in a regulated economy: The case of China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 209-223, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:pacfin:v:17:y:2009:i:2:p:209-223
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927-538X(08)00029-2
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    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. Simon Johnson, 2000. "Tunneling," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(2), pages 22-27, May.
    2. Shin, Hyun-Han & Park, Young S., 1999. "Financing constraints and internal capital markets: Evidence from Korean 'chaebols'," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 169-191, June.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. Stijn Claessens & Joseph P. H. Fan, 2002. "Corporate Governance in Asia: A Survey," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 3(2), pages 71-103, June.
    6. Easterbrook, Frank H, 1984. "Two Agency-Cost Explanations of Dividends," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(4), pages 650-659, September.
    7. Larry H. P. Lang & Mara Faccio & Leslie Young, 2001. "Dividends and Expropriation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(1), pages 54-78, March.
    8. Kato, Hideaki Kiyoshi & Loewenstein, Uri & Tsay, Wenyuh, 2002. "Dividend policy, cash flow, and investment in Japan," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 443-473, September.
    9. Sudipto Bhattacharya, 1979. "Imperfect Information, Dividend Policy, and "The Bird in the Hand" Fallacy," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 10(1), pages 259-270, Spring.
    10. Marianne Bertrand & Paras Mehta & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2002. "Ferreting out Tunneling: An Application to Indian Business Groups," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 117(1), pages 121-148.
    11. Jae‐Seung Baek & Jun‐Koo Kang & Inmoo Lee, 2006. "Business Groups and Tunneling: Evidence from Private Securities Offerings by Korean Chaebols," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(5), pages 2415-2449, October.
    12. Miller, Merton H & Rock, Kevin, 1985. "Dividend Policy under Asymmetric Information," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 40(4), pages 1031-1051, September.
    13. Kim, Se-Jik, 2004. "Bailout and conglomeration," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 315-347, February.
    14. Eun, Cheol S. & Huang, Wei, 2007. "Asset pricing in China's domestic stock markets: Is there a logic?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 15(5), pages 452-480, November.
    15. Kee‐Hong Bae & Jun‐Koo Kang & Jin‐Mo Kim, 2002. "Tunneling or Value Added? Evidence from Mergers by Korean Business Groups," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(6), pages 2695-2740, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Fairchild, Richard & Guney, Yilmaz & Thanatawee, Yordying, 2014. "Corporate dividend policy in Thailand: Theory and evidence," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 129-151.
    2. Manos, Ronny & Murinde, Victor & Green, Christopher J., 2012. "Dividend policy and business groups: Evidence from Indian firms," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 42-56.
    3. Su, Zhong-qin & Fung, Hung-Gay & Huang, Deng-shi & Shen, Chung-Hua, 2014. "Cash dividends, expropriation, and political connections: Evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 260-272.
    4. Cheung, Yan-Leung & Jing, Lihua & Lu, Tong & Rau, P. Raghavendra & Stouraitis, Aris, 2009. "Tunneling and propping up: An analysis of related party transactions by Chinese listed companies," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 372-393, June.
    5. Cheung, Yan-Leung & Qi, Yuehua & Raghavendra Rau, P. & Stouraitis, Aris, 2009. "Buy high, sell low: How listed firms price asset transfers in related party transactions," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 914-924, May.
    6. Khosa,Amrinder & Ahmed,Kamran & Henry,Darren, 2019. "Ownership Structure, Related Party Transactions, and Firm Valuation," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781108492195, January.
    7. Paligorova, Teodora & Xu, Zhaoxia, 2012. "Complex ownership and capital structure," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 701-716.
    8. Jabbouri, Imad, 2016. "Determinants of corporate dividend policy in emerging markets: Evidence from MENA stock markets," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 283-298.
    9. Qin, Wei & Liang, Quanxi & Jiao, Yan & Lu, Meiting & Shan, Yaowen, 2022. "Social trust and dividend payouts: Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    10. Cao, Lihong & Du, Yan & Hansen, Jens Ørding, 2017. "Foreign institutional investors and dividend policy: Evidence from China," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(5), pages 816-827.
    11. Randall Morck, 2011. "Finance and Governance in Developing Economies," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 3(1), pages 375-406, December.
    12. Kuo, Nan-Ting & Lee, Cheng-Few, 2013. "Effects of dividend tax and signaling on firm valuation: Evidence from taxable stock dividend announcements," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 157-180.
    13. Sumon Kumar Bhaumik & Andros Gregoriou, 2010. "‘Family’ Ownership, Tunnelling And Earnings Management: A Review Of The Literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(4), pages 705-730, September.
    14. Gugler, Klaus & Yurtoglu, B. Burcin, 2003. "Corporate governance and dividend pay-out policy in Germany," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(4), pages 731-758, August.
    15. Jan Bena & Jan Hanousek, 2008. "Rent Extraction by Large Shareholders: Evidence Using Dividend Policy in the Czech Republic," Czech Journal of Economics and Finance (Finance a uver), Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, vol. 58(03-04), pages 106-130, May.
    16. Chaiyasit Anuchitworawong, 2010. "The Value of Principles-Based Governance Practices and the Attenuation of Information Asymmetry," Asia-Pacific Financial Markets, Springer;Japanese Association of Financial Economics and Engineering, vol. 17(2), pages 171-207, June.
    17. Enrico Onali, 2014. "Moral Hazard, Dividends, and Risk in Banks," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(1-2), pages 128-155, January.
    18. Paul McGuinness & Kevin Lam & João Vieito, 2015. "Gender and other major board characteristics in China: Explaining corporate dividend policy and governance," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 32(4), pages 989-1038, December.
    19. 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.
    20. Marisetty, Vijaya B. & Marsden, Alastair & Veeraraghavan, Madhu, 2008. "Price reaction to rights issues in the Indian capital market," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 316-340, June.

    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:pacfin:v:17:y:2009:i:2:p:209-223. 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/pacfin .

    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.