We develop a new approach to modeling dynamics in cash flow data extracted from daily firm-level dividend announcements. We decompose daily cash flow news into a persistent component, jumps, and temporary shocks. Empirically, we find that the persistent cash flow component is a highly...

The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic massively increased uncertainty about firms’ cash flows and their access to financial markets. We examine its effect on firms’ strategies for preserving cash by suspending dividends and buybacks and raising new funds through bond and equity issues. We...

We examine the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on firms' decisions to suspend dividends and estimate a model that quantifies the effect of suspensions on growth in aggregate dividends. Our estimates show that dividend suspensions had a large impact on expected future dividend growth and also...