Corporate Governance and Dividend Pay-Out Policy in Germany

32 Pages Posted: 5 Jul 2001

See all articles by Klaus Peter Gugler

Klaus Peter Gugler

Vienna University of Economics and Business; European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI)

B. Burcin Yurtoglu

WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management

Abstract

An alternative explanation of why dividends may be informative is put forward in this paper. We find evidence that dividends signal the severity of the conflict between the large, controlling owner and small, outside shareholders. Accordingly, dividend change announcements provide new information about this conflict. To test the rent extraction hypothesis and to discriminate it from the cash flow signaling explanation, we utilize information on the ownership and control structure of the firm. We analyze 736 dividend change announcements in Germany over the period 1992 to 1998 and find significantly larger negative wealth effects in the order of two percentage points for companies where the ownership and control structure makes the expropriation of minority shareholders more likely than for other firms. The rent extraction hypothesis has also implications for the levels of dividends paid. We find larger holdings of the largest owner to reduce, while larger holdings of the second largest shareholder to increase the dividend pay-out ratio. Deviations from the one-share-one-vote rule of ultimate owners due to pyramidal and cross-ownership structures are also associated with larger negative wealth effects and lower pay-out ratios. Our results call for better minority shareholder rights protection and increased transparency in the course of European Capital Market Reform.

Keywords: Corporate Governance, Dividend Announcements, Rent Extraction, Germany

JEL Classification: G35, G32

Suggested Citation

Gugler, Klaus Peter and Yurtoglu, B. Burcin, Corporate Governance and Dividend Pay-Out Policy in Germany. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=275917 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.275917

Klaus Peter Gugler (Contact Author)

Vienna University of Economics and Business ( email )

Welthandelsplatz 1
Vienna, Wien 1020
Austria

HOME PAGE: http://www.wu.ac.at/iqv/mitarbeiter/gugler

European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI)

c/o the Royal Academies of Belgium
Rue Ducale 1 Hertogsstraat
1000 Brussels
Belgium

HOME PAGE: http://www.ecgi.org

B. Burcin Yurtoglu

WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management ( email )

Chair of Corporate Finance
Burgplatz 2
Vallendar, 56179
Germany
+49 261 6509-721 (Phone)
+49 261 6509-729 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.whu.edu/forschung/fakultaet/finance-group/corporate-finance/

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