God Save the Queen and Her Dividends: Corporate Payouts in the United Kingdom

Stephen P. Ferris, Nilanjan Sen and Ho Pei Yui
Additional contact information
Stephen P. Ferris: University of Missouri–Columbia
Nilanjan Sen: Nanyang Technological University
Ho Pei Yui: Nanyang Technological University

Journal of Business, 2006, vol. 79, issue 3, pages 1149-1174

Abstract: We examine whether the decline in the number of dividend payers is purely a U.S. phenomenon or is part of a global trend. Focusing on the United Kingdom, a capital market comparable in maturity and sophistication to that of the United States, we find that the number of U.K. firms paying dividends declines from 75.9% to 54.5%. After controlling for firm size and profitability, we find a declining propensity to pay dividends over the 1998–2002 subperiod. We conclude that a shift in catering incentives appears most likely explain these recent changes in U.K. payout policies.

Date: 2006

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/resolve?JB790305 main text (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ucp:jnlbus:v:79:y:2006:i:3:p:1149-1174

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JB/home.html

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Business is edited by Albert Madansky

More articles in Journal of Business from University of Chicago Press
Address: The University of Chicago Press, Journals Division, P.O. Box 37005 Chicago, IL 60637
Series data maintained by Christopher F. Baum ().