We ask whether corporations pay out the cash that shareholders anticipate and find consistent evidence. We study the firms traded on the NYSE, the AMEX, and the Nasdaq in 1926 to 2004. Over 30-year investment horizons, corporate cash distributions are commensurate with initial stock prices,...

We rely on a survey of Swiss firms to document deviation from first-best for reasons of internal quot;fairnessquot; when allocating resources. This quot;socialistquot; practice is more widespread in smaller than in larger firms. It ignores the reputation and past performance of the managers who...