企业社会责任、现金股利与投资效率

本文选择我国2008-2016年沪深两市的A股上市公司作为研究样本,首先实证检验了企业承担社会责任对企业现金股利分配的影响。研究结果表明,社会责任表现越好的企业其更倾向于派发或连续派发现金股利,并且现金股利支付率越高。接下来本文对企业发放现金股利与投资效率的关系进行了研究。研究表明,企业发放现金股利通过减少企业的自由现金流抑制代理问题,缓解了自由现金流富余的企业的过度投资,连续派现向市场传递出的积极信号为企业带来新的融资,缓解了自由现金流紧缺的企业的投资不足。最后,本文进一步研究了企业社会责任在现金股利与投资效率的相关关系中发挥了何种调节作用,研究结果显示企业通过履行社会责任增加现金股利的发放,进而可以显著提高现金股利对过度投资的抑制作用。履行社会责任的企业更倾向于连续派现,从而提高了现金股利对投资不足的缓解程度。     

Do corporate governance mechanisms affect cash dividends? An empirical investigation of UK firms

The study examines whether corporate governance mechanisms and the compliance with good governance practice are related to cash dividends. In particular, the study assesses the effect of institutional ownership and board structure on the decision to pay cash dividends. A study on UK firms is interesting because firms are expected to voluntarily structure governance mechanisms based on their own needs. We find that institutional owners positively affect cash dividend payments, suggesting that UK institutions are effective in forcing firms to disgorge cash. There is limited evidence that independent directors affect the cash dividends. The results also show that firm specifics affect the cash dividends, namely, business risk, firm size, and leverage ratio. The results are consistent across several robustness checks.     

中国上市公司现金股利发放的统计研究——以2007—2010年为例

在2007-2010年的四年中,中国上市公司的派现意愿呈现出平稳的态势,上市公司派现与不派现的数量大致相当;中国上市公司现金股利发放水平先升后降;盈利能力不是中国上市公司现金股利发放的首要决定因素;尽管第二至第十大股东对控股股东有着比较重要和明显的制衡作用,但是中国上市公司的控股股东还是存在通过现金股利从上市公司转移现金的行为;每股货币资金、流动比率、速动比率与现金股利的发放水平没有正相关关系,成熟市场的所谓债务协定约束现金盈利的说法在中国并不存在。为此,应完善投资者权益保护的法律法规,改革上市公司股本结构和治理结构,提高股利决策的稳定性,彻底取消红利税。     

An empirical analysis of stock returns around dividend changes

This paper documents significant drift in stock returns following announcements of changes in cash dividends. The magnitude is (i) smaller for increases than for decreases, (ii) inversely related to firm size and positively to dividend yield change, and (iii) concentrated in the first quarter. Beta changes do not explain the drift and it is robust in various subperiods. Next it is shown that dividend increases are positively autocorrelated especially every fourth quarter. The prices keep reacting to future announcements as if the market ignores these autocorrelations. Dividend decreases exhibit weak autocorrelation and the returns are negative for the following three announcements.     

Broad-based employee stock options grants and IPO firms

This paper examines the broad-based grant of employee stock options (ESOs) in the period following the Initial Public Offering (IPO). Stock option grants are used to reduce the negative effects of conflicts of interests associated with a firm's going public. The study documents that option grants can be seen as corporate governance instruments for a number of model specifications. Also, it is found that there is a robust relation between option grants and market and accounting returns, respectively. To the best of the authors' knowledge, no previous study has investigated the determinants of the grants of employee stock options in the post-IPO period to both upper-level and lower-level executives during a period of sixteen years. Because the cross-sectional data of this study amply encompasses more than a business cycle it is possible to examine the grants of ESOs across tight and soft labour markets. During the former type of labour market it appears that more options are granted. Also, the empirical results provide evidence that option grants are an increasing function of the employees’ benefits for the firm. Finally, the findings show that cash constrained firms appear to use employee stock option grants in place of cash compensation.     

Stock market reaction to dividend announcements: Evidence from the Greek stock market

This study investigates the market reaction to cash dividend announcements for the period 2000–2004 employing data from the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE). In particular, the paper examines both the stock price and trading volume response to dividend distribution announcements. Dividend distributions in Greece demonstrate noticeable differences to those of the US, the UK and other developed markets. First, dividends in Greece are paid annually rather than quarterly or semi-annually. Second, the Greek corporate laws 2190/1920 and 148/1967 specifically designate the minimum amount for distribution from the taxed corporate profits. Third, neither tax on dividends nor on capital gains was imposed during the period under examination. Fourth, Greek listed firms are characterized by high ownership concentration where major owners are usually involved in management and therefore have less need for dividend announcements as an information source. Despite this neutralized information and tax environment, we document significant market reaction to dividend change announcements, lending support to the “information content of dividends hypothesis”.     

股权结构与股利政策的发展综述及展望

作为公司财务理论三大支柱之一的股利政策,一直是一个难解之谜。2006年,股权分置改革取得了阶段性的胜利,它解决了长期以来因“同股不同权”而带来的公司治理方面的诸多问题。国际上对股权结构主要从股权流通性、股权集中度、股权制衡度等方面进行探究,而我国关于股权结构与股利政策关系的实证研究主要集中在股权流通性上,研究表明：我国非流通股偏好现金股利,而流通股偏好股票股利。国外研究表明：股权集中度与股利支付水平负相关,而我国则相反。至于股权制衡度,欧洲与亚洲亦得出相反的结论。     

Expected returns and expected dividend growth: time to rethink an established empirical literature

This article examines various state-space and VAR model specifications to investigate the contributions of expected returns and expected dividend growth to movements in the price-dividend ratio. We show that both models involve serious inference problems that need to be dealt with carefully. We propose procedures that offer more reliable inference results, and the corrected inferences indicate that the aggregate data of dividends and returns alone do not provide strong enough evidence to support the notion that the expected returns dominate the stock price variation. However, we show that an alternative measure of cash flows termed the net payout by Larrain and Yogo (2008) appears to lend strong support to the notion that the expected cash flow explains a large fraction of the firm value variation. This finding remains robust in both state-space and VAR decompositions with the corrected inference.     

基于经济波动的控股股东与股利政策关系研究——来自中国证券市场的经验证据

文章考察了控股股东和经济波动对上市公司股利政策的影响.结果表明,从控股股东的角度来看,第一大股东持股比例越高,公司越愿意支付股利,尤其是现金股利.当考虑了经济波动的影响时我们发现,在经济下降期,公司不再愿意支付股利,即使支付股利,公司也偏向于支付股票股利.此外,不同股权性质的公司在经济波动期的股利政策也不一样.在经济下降期,非国有控股公司第一大股东比例越高,股票股利支付数量越少,现金股利支付数量越多,但是,国有控股公司这种变化并不显著,说明相对于国有控股公司,非国有企业的股利政策更容易受到经济波动的影响.     

产权性质、税收成本与上市公司股利政策

文章研究了上市公司控股股东的税收成本差异对上市公司股利政策的影响。作为股利政策的决策者,控股股东须权衡股利政策的成本和收益,其中税收成本是影响股利政策的重要因素之一。不同性质的控股股东对税收成本的关注程度存在显著差异:由于税利分离程度较高,民营控股股东对现金股利的税收成本更为敏感,尤其是在自然人直接控股的上市公司。研究发现,自然人控股公司最不偏好采用现金股利的分配方式以规避税收成本,而国有控股公司更倾向于发放较高的现金股利。实证结果支持了文章的假说,即不同产权所隐含的税收成本差异是影响上市公司股利政策的重要因素。     

上市公司行为短期化：来自现金分配的证据

股利政策被认为是公司发展战略的重要组成部份。本文在分析股利分配相关理论的基础上，通过对我国上市公司股利分配政策的考察，分析了可能影响公司股利政策的一些指标变量，并利用相关模型进行检验。研究结果表明，我国上市公司在决定是否发放现金股利和发放多少时，主要是依据公司短期盈利指标，较少考虑公司的长期发展指标。上市公司这种短期化的现金分配政策隐含着长期投资风险较大，导致投资者行为普遍短期化，从而加剧股票市场的波动。     

行业特征对我国上市公司现金股利分配的影响研究

根据中国证监会于2001年发布的《上市公司行业分类指引》,对我国沪深A股上市公司进行行业分类,并对我国上市公司现金股利分配的行业特征进行实证研究。研究结果表明:行业特征对中国上市公司现金股利分配具有一定影响;不同行业的上市公司的现金股利分配具有显著差异,但这种差异在行业间并非普遍存在;同一行业上市公司的现金股利分配具有稳定性;相对于行业因素,公司特征对上市公司现金股利分配的影响更为显著。     

Dividend policy and investor pressure

The economics of dividend policy has focused on the single tight narrative that dividends keep managers honest, mitigating concerns that they over-invest. This article provides a critique of that agency narrative, arguing that pressure from short-term focused investors, executives and board members pushes the firm into preemptive actions of returning too much cash via dividends. We analyze three channels of influence for investor pressure through 1) threat of takeovers, 2) shareholder value oriented corporate governance, measured by director independence and board equity incentives, and 3) trading and institutional ownership patterns. We find that firms adopt a higher dividend payout to discourage takeover bids. Also, FTSE 100 firms, that are most focused on shareholder value governance in the form of equity-based compensation and a higher share of independent directors, display a higher dividend payout. Frequency of trading and ownership by transient investors seeking current profits also predict increased dividend payout. Traditional agency theory, focused on dividends as a tool for managerial discipline, is not strongly supported by the results, which rather support a narrative of short-term investor pressure on firms irrespective of investment opportunities.     

Dynamic Security Design: Convergence to Continuous Time and Asset Pricing Implications

An entrepreneur with limited liability needs to finance an infinite horizon investment project. An agency problem arises because she can divert operating cash flows before reporting them to the financiers. We first study the optimal contract in discrete time. This contract can be implemented by cash reserves, debt, and equity. The latter is split between the financiers and the entrepreneur and pays dividends when retained earnings reach a threshold. To provide appropriate incentives to the entrepreneur, the firm is downsized when it runs short of cash. We then study the continuous-time limit of the model. We prove the convergence of the discrete-time value functions and optimal contracts. Our analysis yields rich implications for the dynamics of security prices. Stock prices follow a diffusion reflected at the dividend barrier and absorbed at 0. Their volatility, as well as the leverage ratio of the firm, increase after bad performance. Stock prices and book-to-market ratios are in a non-monotonic relationship. A more severe agency problem entails lower price-earning ratios and firm liquidity and higher default risk.     

The changing role of dividends: a firm-level study from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century

Abstract .  We investigate the changes in dividend policy for one of North America's oldest banks (and Canada's first bank), Bank of Montreal, over time by considering the relationships between dividends, prices and earnings for this prominent firm. In the early part of the sample we find that annual dividend and earnings changes are highly variable, with dividend changes following changes in earnings and a larger portion of investors' returns coming from dividends. Since World War II dividend policy has been characterized by more stable and gradual increases in dividends, with more of investors' returns coming from capital gains. Overall, our results suggest that investors' perception of dividends has changed over time, allowing management to pay smaller dividends and reinvest funds in the firm.     

Corporate governance and dividend pay-out policy in Germany

A new explanation of why dividends may be informative is put forward in this paper. We find evidence that dividends signal the severity of the conflict between the large, controlling owner and small, outside shareholders. Accordingly, dividend change announcements provide new information about this conflict. To test the rent extraction hypothesis and discriminate it from the cash flow signaling explanation, we utilize information on the ownership and control structure of the firm. We analyze 736 dividend change announcements in Germany over the period 1992-1998 and find significantly larger negative wealth effects in the order of two percentage points for companies where the ownership and control structure makes the expropriation of minority shareholders more likely than for other firms. The rent extraction hypothesis also has implications for the levels of dividends paid. We find larger holdings of the largest owner to reduce, while larger holdings of the second largest shareholder to increase the dividend pay-out ratio. Deviations from the one-share-one-vote rule due to pyramidal and cross-ownership structures are also associated with larger negative wealth effects and lower pay-out ratios. Finally, using Lintner's (American Economic Review 46 (2) (1956) 97-113) model of dividend determination we find corroborating results. The presence of a second largest shareholder with a considerable equity stake makes a crucial difference in the governance of the firm. Our results call for better minority shareholder rights protection and increased transparency in the course of European Capital Market Reform.     

Dividend taxation and intertemporal tax arbitrage

We analyze the effects of changes in dividend tax policy using a life-cycle model of the firm, in which new firms first access equity markets, then grow internally, and finally pay dividends when they have reached steady state. We find that unanticipated permanent changes in tax rates have only small effects on aggregate investment, since macroeconomic dynamics are dominated by mature firms for which dividend taxation is not distortionary. Anticipated or temporary dividend tax changes, on the other hand, create incentives for firms to engage in inter-temporal tax arbitrage so as to reduce investors' tax burden. For example, a temporary tax cut – the type most likely to be enacted by policymakers – induces firms to accelerate dividend payments while tax rates are low, which reduces their cash holdings and makes them capital-constrained when large investment opportunities arise. This can significantly lower aggregate investment for periods after the tax cut.     

行业因素影响上市公司首发现金股利决策吗?

本文通过对2001～2008年424个上市公司首次发放现金股利行为的跟踪调查,系统性地从行业股利分配、行业竞争程度、行业成长性以及行业自信水平四个维度研究了行业因素对上市公司首发现金股利决策的影响。研究发现:(1)行业整体股利分配对上市公司首发股利产生显著正面影响,表明上司公司股利的首次发放具有行业追随效应;(2)行业成长性和行业自信水平对上市公司的首发现金股利产生负向影响,但行业竞争程度并没有对上市公司首发股利产生显著影响;(3)半强制分红政策强化了行业因素对上市公司首发现金股利政策的影响。     

派现行为下的控股股东利益转移问题研究

本文运用深市上市公司的数据,对我国上市公司派现与控股股东利益转移行为之间的关系进行了实证分析.结果表明,控股股东将现金股利作为利益转移的方式之一,控股股东控股优势越大,公司派现意愿越强,派现水平也越高;派现意愿与公司上市年限负相关,而与上年配股情况正相关;此外,债务和股权制衡能够在一定程度上制约这种利用派现政策实施的利益转移行为.     

股权集中度视角下高管团队特征对现金股利政策的影响

现金股利政策是上市公司对盈利进行分配或留存用于再投资的决策问题,在公司经营中起着至关重要的作用。探究了高管团队特征(规模、年龄、性别、学历背景)对企业现金股利政策的影响,研究发现管理团队的规模越大、平均年龄越大,企业现金股利支付率越高,表明企业管理团队人数越多,年龄越大,越容易采用较高的股利支付率,而管理团队的平均学历越高,越倾向于选择较低的现金股利分配率。说明更高学历的管理层认为,较低的现金股利支付水平才是有利于企业发展的股利支付水平。男性管理层和女性管理者对企业支付现金股利的高低并没有明显的差异。进一步研究发现,企业的股权越集中,管理者的特征对现金股利政策的影响会被弱化。也就是说,股权集中度会显著削弱管理者特征对公司现金股利政策的影响,该实证结果也印证了上市公司中代理问题的普遍存在。研究结果可为企业管理团队的合理配置提出可以借鉴的依据以及实证结果的支持。