Juicing the dividend yield: Mutual funds and the demand for dividends

Lawrence E. Harris, Samuel M. Hartzmark and David H. Solomon

Journal of Financial Economics, 2015, vol. 116, issue 3, 433-451

Abstract: Some mutual funds purchase stocks before dividend payments to artificially increase their dividends, which we call “juicing.” Funds paid more than twice the dividends implied by their holdings in 7.4% of fund-years examined. Juicing is associated with larger inflows, and is more common among funds with unsophisticated investors. This behavior is consistent with an underlying investor demand for dividends, but is hard to explain by taxes or need for income, as funds can generate equivalent tax-free distributions by returning capital. Juicing is costly to investors through higher turnover and increased taxes of 0.57% to 1.52% of fund assets per year.

Keywords: Dividends; Mutual funds; Behavioral finance; Payout policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G02 G11 G35 G38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (33)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jfinec:v:116:y:2015:i:3:p:433-451

DOI: 10.1016/j.jfineco.2015.04.001

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