Fama, Eugene F.; French, Kenneth R. - In: Journal of Applied Corporate Finance 14 (2001) 1, pp. 67-79
The proportion of U.S. firms paying dividends drops sharply during the 1980s and 1990s. Among NYSE, AMEX, and Nasdaq firms, the proportion of dividend payers falls from 66.5% in 1978 to only 20.8% in 1999. The decline is due in part to an avalanche of new listings that tilts the population of...