Recent empirical studies of dividend taxation have found that: (1) dividend tax cuts cause large, immediate increases … in dividend payouts, and (2) the increases are driven by firms with high levels of shareownership among top executives or … the board of directors. These findings are inconsistent with existing "old view" and "new view" theories of dividend …

-standing 2002 dividend payers would have cash holdings of $1.8 trillion (51% of total assets), up from $160 billion (6% of assets …), and $1.2 trillion in excess of their collective $600 billion in long-term debt. Their dividend payments prevented … total equity or total assets,controlling for firm size, profitability, growth, leverage, cash balances, and dividend history …

the equityholders' incentive to favor risky projects - as well as with respect to borrowing and dividend decisions …