Executive Financial Incentives and Payout Policy: Firm Responses to the 2003 Dividend Tax Cut

We test whether executive stock ownership affects firm payouts using the 2003 dividend tax cut to identify an exogenous change in the after‐tax value of dividends. We find that executives with higher ownership were more likely to increase dividends after the tax cut in 2003, whereas no relation is found in periods when the dividend tax rate was higher. Relative to previous years, firms that initiated dividends in 2003 were more likely to reduce repurchases. The stock price reaction to the tax cut suggests that the substitution of dividends for repurchases may have been anticipated, consistent with agency conflicts.     

Estimating potential for aftermarket requirements

This article will focus mainly on utility electric plant maintenance with particular emphasis on steam (nonnuclear) turbine-generator maintenance. Our objective has been to identify and examine relationships between the target market and other recorded key operating parameters that would be useful for future forecasting of trends in the target market.     

Action on tropical food products

The history of the Tropical Products Institute (TPI) extends back to 1894. For many years it was essentially a Commonwealth body; however in 1965 it became a scientific unit of the UK's Ministry of Overseas Development which had been created to administer the British Aid Programme. The Institute was then able to cooperate with other developing countries outside of the Commonwealth. It has been recognized for some years as a world centre for the study of post-harvest problems in plant and animal resource development. High among its priorities, accounting for some 75% of the effort of the staff of almost 400, are its programmes on the handling, processing, preservation, storage, transport, quality control, marketing and uses of tropical foods.