In frictionless markets dividends are irrelevant to firm value (Miller and Modigliani 1961), but in practice we propose that they affect valuation and stewardship, roles traditionally filled by accounting information. Using a variety of econometric methods to control for differences between...

We provide empirical evidence that the level of the dividend signals long-horizon future earnings and that the earnings information embedded in the dividend has implications for expected returns. From an earnings information perspective, we show the level of the dividend is associated with up to...

We provide evidence that firms with weak investment opportunities (those whose current earnings justify a greater valuation than firms with strong investment opportunities) signal their permanent earnings level through their dividends. In the cross-section, we show that both dividend levels and...