While dividend smoothing is taken as an article of faith, little is known about the cross-sectional properties of smoothing policies. Why do some firms smooth more than others? We examine firms' dividend smoothing behavior across a wide spectrum of publicly traded firms in the U.S. We find that...

In early 2002, we surveyed 384 financial executives, to determine the factors that drive dividend and share repurchase decisions. Our survey was supplemented by in-depth interviews with an additional 23 executives. The survey consisted of 11 main questions, most with subparts - over 100...

Portfolio diversification of firms' controlling owners influences their firms' capital investment. Empirically, the effect of owners' portfolio diversification on their firms' investment levels is positive for publicly-traded firms and tends to be negative for privately-held ones. These findings...