IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/lap/wpaper/050.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Explaining Dividend Policies in Argentina

Author

Listed:
  • Ricardo N. Bebczuk

Abstract

Dividend policy is central to the performance and valuation of listed companies, but the issue still remains scarcely investigated in emerging countries. The purpose of this paper is to study, for the first time, the determinants of the dividend policy of listed companies in Argentina over the 1996-2002 period. Although the modern theory stresses agency and other informational problems as the principal explanations of the so-called dividend puzzle, we will contend here that for many companies with highly concentrated ownership, a model of a sole owner-manager provides most (but not all) of the needed clues to answer the question as to why companies pay dividends in Argentina. Our main findings are that: (a) Bigger and more profitable firms without good investment opportunities pay more dividends; (b) Companies with more fluid access to debt pay more dividends; (c) Furthermore, riskier and more indebted firms prefer to pay lower dividends, and the same applies to foreign-owned firms; (d) ADR issuers disburse more dividends than other companies; and (e) Firms do not seem to care about maintaining stable payout ratios over time, but there is some inertia in that non-payers tend to stay that way and otherwise.

Suggested Citation

  • Ricardo N. Bebczuk, 2004. "Explaining Dividend Policies in Argentina," Department of Economics, Working Papers 050, Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
    • Handle: RePEc:lap:wpaper:050
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.depeco.econo.unlp.edu.ar/wp/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/doc50.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Joshua D. Angrist & Alan B. Krueger, 2001. "Instrumental Variables and the Search for Identification: From Supply and Demand to Natural Experiments," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 15(4), pages 69-85, Fall.
    2. 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.
    3. La Porta, Rafael & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 1997. "Legal Determinants of External Finance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(3), pages 1131-1150, July.
    4. Baker, H. Kent & Powell, Gary E. & Veit, E. Theodore, 2002. "Revisiting the dividend puzzle: Do all of the pieces now fit?," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(4), pages 241-261.
    5. Mark Gertler & R. Glenn Hubbard, 1988. "Financial factors in business fluctuations," Proceedings - Economic Policy Symposium - Jackson Hole, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, pages 33-78.
    6. 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.
    7. 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.
    8. repec:fth:prinin:455 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Miller, Merton H & Rock, Kevin, 1985. "Dividend Policy under Asymmetric Information," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 40(4), pages 1031-1051, September.
    10. Bebczuk,Ricardo N., 2003. "Asymmetric Information in Financial Markets," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521797320.
    11. Karine Gobert, 2001. "Capital Structure and Risk Management," CIRANO Working Papers 2001s-51, CIRANO.
    12. Joshua Angrist & Alan Krueger, 2001. "Instrumental Variables and the Search for Identification: From Supply and Demand to Natural Experiments," Working Papers 834, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    13. Bebczuk,Ricardo N., 2003. "Asymmetric Information in Financial Markets," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521793421.
    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. Dzidic, Ante, 2014. "Dividend Policy Of Public Companies In Bosnia And Herzegovina," UTMS Journal of Economics, University of Tourism and Management, Skopje, Macedonia, vol. 5(1), pages 1-10.
    2. Rihanat Idowu Abdulkadir & Nur Adiana Hiau Abdullah & Wong Woei-Chyuan, 2015. "Dividend Policy Changes in The Pre-, Mid-, and Post-Financial Crisis: Evidence from The Nigerian Stock Market," Asian Academy of Management Journal of Accounting and Finance (AAMJAF), Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia, vol. 11(2), pages 103-126.
    3. Džidić Ante & Živko Igor, 2019. "Internal factors of dividend policy in public firms in Bosnia and Herzegovina," Croatian Review of Economic, Business and Social Statistics, Sciendo, vol. 5(2), pages 1-16, December.

    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. Ricardo N. Bebczuk, 2005. "Corporate Governance and Ownership: Measurement and Impact on Corporate Performance and Dividend Policies in Argentina," Research Department Publications 3212, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    2. du Jardin, Philippe & Séverin, Eric, 2011. "Dividend policy," MPRA Paper 44382, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. Geetanjali Pinto & Shailesh Rastogi, 2019. "Sectoral Analysis of Factors Influencing Dividend Policy: Case of an Emerging Financial Market," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-18, June.
    6. Byun, Jinho & Kim, Kihun & Liao, Rose C. & Pan, Carrie, 2021. "The Impact of Investor Sentiment on Catering Incentives around the World," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    7. Shumi Akhtar, 2018. "Dividend payout determinants for Australian Multinational and Domestic Corporations," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 58(1), pages 11-55, March.
    8. Bartram, Söhnke M. & Brown, Philip & How, Janice C.Y. & Verhoeven, Peter, 2007. "Agency Conflicts and Corporate Payout Policies: A Global Study," MPRA Paper 23244, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Kent Baker, H. & De Ridder, Adri, 2018. "Payout policy in industrial and financial firms," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 138-151.
    10. Thomas McCluskey & Aoife Broderick & Amanda Boyle & Bruce Burton & David Power, 2010. "Evidence on Irish financial analysts' and fund managers' views about dividends," Qualitative Research in Financial Markets, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 2(2), pages 80-99, June.
    11. Roni Michaely & Stefano Rossi & Michael Weber & Michael Weber, 2017. "The Information Content of Dividends: Safer Profits, Not Higher Profits," CESifo Working Paper Series 6751, CESifo.
    12. Paul Tanyi & David B. Smith & Xiaoyan Cheng, 2021. "Does firm payout policy affect shareholders’ dissatisfaction with directors?," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 57(1), pages 279-320, July.
    13. Andres, Christian & Doumet, Markus & Fernau, Erik & Theissen, Erik, 2015. "The Lintner model revisited: Dividends versus total payouts," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 56-69.
    14. H.Kent Baker & Gary E. Powell & E.Theodore Veit, 2002. "Revisiting the dividend puzzle," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(4), pages 241-261.
    15. Guilhem Bascle, 2008. "Controlling for endogeneity with instrumental variables in strategic management research," Post-Print hal-00576795, HAL.
    16. Alpa Dhanani, 2005. "Corporate Dividend Policy: The Views of British Financial Managers," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(7‐8), pages 1625-1672, September.
    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. Schmid, Thomas & Ampenberger, Markus & Kaserer, Christoph & Achleitner, Ann-Kristin, 2010. "Controlling shareholders and payout policy: do founding families have a special 'taste for dividends'?," CEFS Working Paper Series 2010-01, Technische Universität München (TUM), Center for Entrepreneurial and Financial Studies (CEFS).
    19. Ricardo Bebczuk & Eduardo Cavallo, 2016. "Is business saving really none of our business?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(24), pages 2266-2284, May.
    20. 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.

    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:lap:wpaper:050. 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: Diego Fernandez Felices (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/funlpar.html .

    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.