This paper offers a new explanation of the dividend puzzle, based upon a model in which firms attempt to signal … through a dividend reinvestment plan), despite the fact that this appears to create gratuitous tax liabilities. In addition to … providing an explanation for the dividend puzzle, I also derive a number of strong results concerning corporate payout decisions …

We investigate dividend smoothing behaviors of approximately 6,000 firms from 28 countries. The data find a wide … variation in the extent of dividend smoothing across countries, while US firms smooth dividends the most. Firms with a … concentrated ownership structure adjust their dividends quickly, especially when the target dividend level is lower than dividends …

Recent literature has claimed that the 2003 U.S. dividend tax cut caused a large increase in aggregate dividend payouts …. I document four simple facts that call this claim into question. First, the post-tax cut increase in dividend payouts … coincided with a surge in corporate profits, such that the dividend payout ratio did not rise. Second, share repurchases …

President regarding intercorporate dividend taxation. Foreign governments may find the American experience of value should they …

, higher dividend payout, lower foreign income, and higher closely held ownership. Further analysis provides evidence …

For a sample of 28,895 firms across 30 countries and 29 years, there is a negative relation between dividend tax rates … and dividend payout. Firms increase dividend payout in response to both absolute and relative (to capital gains tax rates …) decreases in dividend tax rates. This negative relation is robust to both increases and decreases and both shocks and continuous …