The Effect of Dividends on Consumption

Malcolm Baker, Stefan Nagel and Jeffrey Wurgler

No 12288, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Classical models predict that the division of stock returns into dividends and capital appreciation does not affect investor consumption patterns, while mental accounting and other economic frictions predict that investors have a higher propensity to consume from stock returns in the form of dividends. Using two micro data sets, we show that investors are indeed far more likely to consume from dividends than capital gains. In the Consumer Expenditure Survey, household consumption increases with dividend income, controlling for total wealth, total portfolio returns, and other sources of income. In a sample of household investment accounts data from a brokerage, net withdrawals from the accounts increase one-for-one with ordinary dividends of moderate size, controlling for total portfolio returns, and also increase with mutual fund and special dividends. We comment on several potential explanations for the results.

JEL-codes: D1 E2 G3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-acc, nep-fin, nep-fmk, nep-mac and nep-pke
Note: CF EFG
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Published as Malcolm Baker & Stefan Nagel & Jeffrey Wurgler, 2007. "The Effect of Dividends on Consumption," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 38(2007-1), pages 231-292.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w12288.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The Effect of Dividends on Consumption (2007)
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: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12288

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w12288

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().