Effects of investor tax heterogeneity on stock prices and trading behaviour around the ex-dividend day: the case of Australia

Using a sample of Australian stocks during the 1996–2014 period, this study examines how tax heterogeneity between domestic and foreign investors affects trading behaviour and stock prices around the ex-dividend day. Domestic investors prefer dividends and tend to buy stocks cum-dividend and sell them ex-dividend whereas foreign investors tend to trade in the opposite direction. Abnormal trading turnover increases with tax heterogeneity. Moreover, stocks with a larger domestic investor base are associated with a higher price drop-off ratio on the ex-dividend day and higher market value of franking credits. Overall, our findings support the dynamic dividend clientele hypothesis.     

Some Variants of Constrained Estimation in Finite Population Sampling

This is a review article that unifies several important examples using constrained optimisation techniques. The basic tools are three simple mathematical optimisation results subject to certain constraints. Applications include calibration, benchmarking in small area estimation and imputation. A final illustration is constrained optimisation under a general divergence loss.     

Taxes,International Clienteles and the Value of ADR Dividends

An alternative approach to valuing dividends is developed and applied to American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) on Australian stocks. The values of ADR dividends are estimated from the period when, due to different ex‐dividend dates, the ADRs and their underlying stocks trade with differential dividend entitlements. Australian ADR dividends are valued at less than their face value and the dividends on the underlying stocks are valued at more than their face value. This suggests that ADR dividends are priced by a clientele of US investors placing little value on the imputation tax credits attached to the dividends and that a clientele of Australian resident investors, who obtain value from imputation tax credits, price the dividends on the underlying stock.     

The Dividend Substitution Hypothesis: Australian Evidence

In a perfect capital market firms are indifferent to either dividends or repurchases as payout mechanisms, suggesting that the two payout methods should be perfect substitutes. Empirical research at the single country level, as well as cross country studies, provide evidence that dividends and repurchases act as substitutes (the dividend substitution hypothesis), and that the tax treatment of dividends versus capital gains affects this relation. Australia, which operates under a full dividend imputation system, has two types of repurchases: on‐ and off‐market. On‐market repurchases are taxed as capital gains while off‐market repurchases comprise a large dividend component carrying valuable tax credits. Australia thus provides a natural setting to investigate how the tax treatment of proceeds affects the dividend substitution hypothesis. Dividend substitution is found to exist for on‐market repurchases but not for off‐market repurchases, thus providing further support for the idea that the tax treatment of proceeds affects the substitutability of repurchases and dividends.     

论第三方物流合同违约责任的归责原则

20世纪末,第三方物流迅速发展,由传统第三方物流逐渐向现代整合性第三方物流过渡,相应的,第三方物流合同也逐渐从传统的运输、仓储合同向类型结合型的第三方物流合同转化。这种类型结合型的第三方物流合同系无名合同,其裁判依据包括双方之间订立的第三方物流合同本身(包括补充协议、体系解释、交易习惯)和民事法律规范。从双方之间订立的第三方物流合同角度而言,其违约责任多采用的是严格责任归责原则。从民事法律规范的角度来说,基于个案中能否确认货损发生的区间,第三方物流合同适用不同的违约责任的归责原则,或适用《合同法》总则的严格责任原则,或适用损失确认区间适用法律的违约责任的归责原则。     

Strategic timing of earnings announcements?

Using firm‐specific regressions, I show that earnings response coefficient differ across firms. However, there is no evidence of differential earnings response coefficient to a certain earnings announcement time. By switching to a different announcement time from its preferred time, a firm does not gain a softer market reaction. I compare research results from a firm‐specific method and from a pooled time‐series and cross‐sectional method and demonstrate that they differ significantly due to large heterogeneity across firms. I suggest that researchers should adopt a firm‐specific approach to avoid misleading results and to achieve improved estimations.     

法经济学视野下的违约归责原则

法经济学分析表明,由于注意标准模糊,过失责任规则可能导致无效率和不公平的结果,违约归责应采用具有共同过失抗辩的严格责任规则.鉴于违约责任的特殊性,应利用可预见性规则和守约人减损义务规则,将守约人的过失限定在不适当地扩大违约损失这种特殊情况.这不仅可以避免违约人逃避责任的可能性,同时也避免了补偿悖论问题.     

The Lognormal Distribution as a Model for Survival Time in Cancer, With an Emphasis on Prognostic Factors

Despite their long history, parametric survival-time models have largely been neglected in the modern biostatistical and medical literature in favour of the Cox proportional hazards model. Here, I present a case for the use of the lognormal distribution in the analysis of survival times of breast and ovarian cancer patients, specifically in modelling the effects of prognostic factors. The lognormal provides a completely specified probability distribution for the observations and a sensible estimate of the variation explained by the model, a quantity that is controversial for the Cox model. I show how imputation of censored observations under the model may be used to inspect the data using familiar graphical and other technques. Results from the Cox and lognormal models are compared and shown apparently to differ to some extent. However, it is hard to judge which model gives the more accurate estimates. It is concluded that provided the lognormal model fits the data adequately, it may be a useful approach to the analysis of censored survival data.     

Use of minimum risk approach in the estimation of regression models with missing observations

This article considers a linear regression model with some missing observations on the response variable and presents two estimators of regression coefficients employing the approach of minimum risk estimation. Small disturbance asymptotic properties of these estimators along with the traditional unbiased estimator are analyzed and conditions, that are easy to check in practice, for the superiority of one estimator over the other are derived. Received May 2001