Dividends and the Value of the Firm: Evidence from the Australian Equity Market

A version of the Black and Scholes dividend yield experiment is conducted, with a view to determining whether there exists a preference for dividends versus capital gains. Using data from the 1960s the experiment reveals a relatively large relationship between dividend yields and risk-adjusted share returns, in the year subsequent to the payment of the dividend yields. The observed dividend effect is too large to be explained by major hypotheses concerning market-wide preferences for or against dividends.