Dividend payout policy of Shariah compliant firms: Evidence from United States

Zaheer Anwer, Shamsher Mohamad, Andrea Paltrinieri and M. Kabir Hassan

Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, 2021, vol. 69, issue C

Abstract: This paper investigates the effects of religious screening on payout behavior of US firms. Shariah compliant (SC) indices serve as suitable sample as they are emerging as alternative investment class in the last two decades. Through an analysis of a sample of US firms belonging to Dow Jones proprietary database for the period 2006–2018, this study provides evidence that SC firms are more prone to make total payout, cash dividends and repurchases. We use panel logistic regressions with industry and year fixed effects. The findings reveal that the drivers of higher propensity of total payout are higher profitability, higher retained earnings, lower debt capital structure and lower asset growth. The factors that contribute to likelihood of paying higher cash dividends are higher profitability, lower governance levels and lower market/book assets ratio. Moreover, better governance, lower asset growth and lower equity/assets increase the propensity of SC firms to make higher repurchases. These findings are important contribution to the Islamic corporate finance and dividend policy literature.

Keywords: Dividend policy; Islamic finance; Stock screening; Portfolio management; Shariah compliant firms (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G30 G32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:pacfin:v:69:y:2021:i:c:s0927538x20300639

DOI: 10.1016/j.pacfin.2020.101422

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