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The purpose of this paper is to explore unequal dividend payment policies called differentiated dividends (DDs) in Korea. The characteristics of firms are examined which allocate higher dividends to small shareholders than large shareholders within the same share class.

Logit analysis is used to compare firms that initiate DDs with those that pay conventional equal dividends. The abnormal market reaction to news of initiation of DDs is also examined.

Managers of firms facing cash insufficiency are more likely to initiate DDs. The DD scheme is used as a method to cater to high dividend demands in the market. The stock price reaction to the initiation of DDs is positive when the total dividend payments are increased, signifying that the market interprets it as good news.

Firms facing cash insufficiency can avoid an increase in the cost of capital by retaining extra cash from DDs rather than borrowing external funds. Additionally, managers can foster favorable market reactions by using DDs which helps firms in attracting new capital investments. Finally, regulatory bodies can consider encouraging managers to adopt unequal dividend schemes to allow higher dividend payments to small shareholders, especially in countries with weak legal protection for minority shareholders.

Similar unequal dividend policies exist in European countries but there is a lack of research conducted on those policies. The paper provides implications for the strategic use of unequal dividends to maximize firm value.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the risk of inefficiency of China's stock index futures market by investigating the opportunity and profitability of exchange‐traded fund (ETF) arbitrage. The explanation of behavioral risk to market efficiency is examined.

Based on cost‐of‐carry model, some assumptions about market efficiency were examined, and statistical tests were implemented to support the findings.

In China, borrowing and lending interest rates are quite different; dividends are small and paid in an irregular manner; and short sale cannot be used in arbitrage by all investors. It is found that the Chinese index futures market is far from efficient.

With reference to the empirical study, this is believed to be the first application of behavioral study to the study of market efficiency. The analysis of the statistics about Chinese index futures market and the algorithm parameters are very valuable for in‐depth understanding of the emerging markets.

A transfer from a richer individual to a poorer one seems to be the most intuitive and straightforward way of reducing income inequality in a society. However, can such a transfer reduce the welfare of the society? We show that a rich-to-poor transfer can induce a response in the individuals’ behaviors which actually exacerbates, rather than reduces, income inequality as measured by the Gini index. We use this result as an input in assessing the social welfare consequence of the transfer. Measuring social welfare by Sen’s social welfare function, we show that the transfer reduces social welfare. These two results are possible even for individuals whose utility functions are relatively simple (namely, at most quadratic in all terms) and incorporate a distaste for low relative income. We first present the two results for a population of two individuals. We subsequently provide several generalizations. We show that our argument holds for a population of any size, and that the choice of utility functions which trigger this response is not singular – the results obtain for an open set of the space of admissible utility functions. In addition, we show that a rich-to-poor transfer can exacerbate inequality when we employ Lorenz-domination, and that it can decrease social welfare when we draw on any increasing, Schur-concave welfare function.

The purpose of this study is firm value management through corporate finance policy design and scenario analysis to maximize the firm value.

The study develops a system dynamics model for an oil firm and incorporates the financial and physical processes to perform the firm valuation. The model is simulated under the current and alternative investment, capital structure and dividend policies of the case firm, assuming different oil and gas price and tax rate scenarios to identify which combination of policies maximizes the firm value.

The simulation results suggest that lowering the volume of investments, increasing the debt ratio and reducing the dividend payments from the current level increases the share price, given increased oil and gas price expectations and lower tax rates. However, the total firm value outperforms with increased investments toward the end of the simulation period. In case of decreased oil and gas price expectations, lower volume of investments, lower debt ratio and lower dividend payments increase the share prices, given lower taxes.

This study entails significance as it provides a comprehensive financial planning model for an oil firm, which incorporates the complex interactions of key financial and physical processes of the firm. The study contributes to debates on corporate finance policies by integrating multiple theories, accounting for accumulation processes and feedback loops and their non-linear interactions. The study proposes the consideration of combined impact of policies for firm value management.

This paper aims to analyze the stock price reaction because of dividend reduction (DR) announcements in the Indian equity market, controlling for share repurchases.

The sample comprises National Stock Exchange (NSE) 500 companies listed in the NSE Ltd. covering a time span from year 2009 to 2019. Using the event study methodology, the authors measure the impact of DR announcements on security prices around the event day. The authors also examine the price response to DRs at the interim stage versus the final stage and identify the factors that drive the decision to reduce dividends at the interim level versus final level.

The authors find that overall DR announcements negatively impact abnormal returns. Firms that experience stronger adverse price reaction following DR announcements resort to share repurchase in the same year to boost stock prices. The authors find that interim DRs create more negative price reactions than final DRs. Finally, firms experiencing lower levels of prior year earnings, firms with smaller sizes and overvalued firms tend to reduce dividends at the interim level instead of postponing the reduction to the final level.

This paper examines stock price reaction because of DR announcements of Indian firms. The sample comprises firms that reduce dividends with contemporaneous share repurchases as well as firms that reduce dividends without contemporaneous repurchase activity. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, studies on substitution effect of dividends with buyback in the context of Indian equity market are rare. Further, investigating the difference in stock price movement because of DRs at the interim level versus the final level is the unique contribution of this paper.

This chapter addresses the issue of the Global South external debt by mobilizing insights from Modern Monetary Theory, Ecological Economics, and Dependency Theory. It argues that the external debt problem of Southern governments is a reflection of their subordinate economic and monetary status. It shows why the argument of foreign currency shortage often used to explain the need for Southern governments to issue foreign currency debts remains superficial. In contrast to the usual focus on creditors, the chapter highlights the role played by foreign direct investment in the genesis of the chronic external indebtedness of most Southern countries. It argues then that the external debt of the South must be understood holistically not only as a manifestation of the unequal ecological exchange between the North and the South but also as an instrument that has contributed to reproducing and amplifying this pattern. Under these conditions, the cancellation or restructuring of the South's external debt stock and a few other unlikely concessions by the Northern countries will not be enough to abolish the “debt system.” This is an important lesson from the antiimperialist critique of the mid-1970s New International Economic Order (NIEO) agenda that current movements for Southern debt cancellation and Climate Justice would do well to remember.

The mainstream framework for corporate governance is that all corporate activity should be directed towards shareholder wealth maximization. This article posits that public policy should move away from shareholder primacy and instead recognize employees as key contributors to corporate value-creation. One way to implement this approach is to require the creation of Employee Equity Funds (EEFs) at large corporations, which would pay employees dividends alongside external shareholders and establish a collective employee voice in corporate governance. EEFs may reduce economic inequality while improving firm performance and macroeconomic stability. This article provides an original estimate of average employee dividends, illustrating the potential of employee equity funds.

Analysis of employee dividends for Employee Equity Funds at large U.S. corporations, using publicly available corporate finance data.

Based on historic dividend payments and employee counts in public 10-K filings, I find that, if EEFs held 20% of outstanding equity, the average employee dividend across this sample would be $2,622 per year, while the median is $1,760. This indicates that employee dividends can be a small but meaningful form of redressing wealth inequality for the low-wage workforce, though it should emphatically not be seen as a replacement for fair wages.

Original data analysis of a proposed policy reform to increase the benefits of employee equity in the United States.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of dividend initiations on shareholders’ wealth using a sample of 38 Greek listed firms.

The event study methodology of Brown and Warner was employed to examine the share price reaction to initial dividend announcements across different information environments.

Results show that dividend initiations bring about significant positive abnormal returns in the announcement period. The price response to dividend initiations is inversely associated with the information environment. Finally, the volatility of stock returns is higher in the low information environment group of firms than in the high information environment group of firms.

The observations are not many, although the whole population is included, since there are no data available prior to 2000.

These findings are useful to researchers, practitioners and investors who have an interest in firms listed on the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) for their proper strategic decision making.

For the first time the stock price behaviour of firms listed on the ASE around dividend initiation announcement dates is examined.

This study aims to investigate the impact of ownership structure and board characteristics on dividend policy in the listed Turkish firms between 2013 and 2019.

This study uses the probability of paying dividends, dividend payout ratio and dividend yield measures. The suitable regression procedures (logit, probit and Tobit models) are used to examine the research hypotheses by focusing on a panel data set drawn from the Borsa Istanbul (BIST) 100 index, excluding financial and utility firms.

The empirical findings indicate that institutional and concentrated ownerships are significant and positively associated with dividend payouts, whereas family ownership does not influence dividend policy. On the other end, board size is positive, while chief executive officer duality is negatively related to dividend policy. Additionally, the female directors and board independence are insignificant in influencing firms to pay high dividends.

Future researchers can validate this paper’s findings by considering the stock dividends as well. Additionally, future researchers may investigate the relationship between these constructs by extending the sample size of firms listed on BIST or in other emerging markets.

This study’s findings may serve policymakers, regulators, investors and academic researchers to get valuable guidance from relevant literature. The Turkish firms may improve dividend policy by implementing the regulatory framework introduced by the Capital Markets Law in 2012 for effective monitoring and protecting the minority shareholders’ rights. The controlling shareholders may alleviate principal-principal conflicts by ensuring the independence of directors and increasing the number of female directors according to the critical mass of at least 30% of board members.

This study contributes to agency theory and signaling theory by considering ownership structure and board attributes among Turkish firms related to dividend payments.