Determinants of corporate dividend policy : A survey of NYSE firms

This study reports the results of a 1997 survey of NYSE-listed US firms about managers’ views of what factors determine dividend policy. The study updates and expands previous survey research on dividend policy and provides longitudinal comparisons between 1983 and 1997 on the determinants of dividend policy. The findings show that the most important determinants of a firm’s dividend policy are the level of current and expected future earnings and the pattern or continuity of past dividends. The most important factors influencing dividend policy in the 1983 dividend survey are highly similar to those in the current survey. When taken together, these findings suggest little change in dividend determinants over time. Although industry type appears to influence the importance that respondents place on some determinants of dividend policy, some industry-based differences appear to have diminished between the 1983 survey and the current one.[JEL: G35]