We examine the payout policy of U.S. firms over the period 1980-2008. Prior research indicates that firm characteristics, managerial preferences, and investor clienteles are all important factors in setting payout policy. Counter to the oft-reported positive relation between senior citizens and...

One of the major financial decisions for a public company is the dividend policy - the proportion in which the company decides to distribute profits to shareholders. The difficulty of the decision comes from the implications on firm value. There are conflicting points of view on dividend policy....

Numerous studies relating to the field of dividends have been carried out over the past twenty-seven years. The objective of this paper is to contrast it with the Barclay study (1987) and to complement the Venkatesh paper (1989). This piece of research concludes that, contrary to Barclay’s...