Did ERISA's Prudent Man Rule Change the Pricing of Dividend Omitting Firms?
Alon P. Brav
Duke University - Fuqua School of Business
J.B. Heaton III
Bartlit Beck Herman Palenchar & Scott LLP
May 1998
Abstract:
The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) subjected private pension fund managers to a strict "prudent man" rule. We show that dividend omitting firms underperform only after this law took effect, and that many institutional investors stop holding stocks that omit dividends in the post-ERISA sample period. If a firm reinitiates a dividend, then both effects reverse. Our results illustrate the role law may play in limiting arbitrage and segmenting markets. This may shed light on the failure of dividend omitting firms to behave like other value stocks in the post-ERISA sample period, a failure that provides a serious challenge to both behavioral and rational theories.
Number of Pages in PDF File: 27
JEL Classification: G12, G18, G23
working papers series
Suggested Citation
Brav, Alon P. and Heaton, J.B., Did ERISA's Prudent Man Rule Change the Pricing of Dividend Omitting Firms? (May 1998). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=98568 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.98568
