PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the dividend payout behavior of Indian firms and test whether the three prominent dividend policy theories (signaling, life-cycle and catering) explain the dividend policy of Indian firms.Design/methodology/approachThe authors test the three theories using the methodology based on the studies of Nissim and Ziv (2001), DeAngelo et al. (2006) and Baker and Wurgler (2004). For testing the signaling theory, the authors regress the change in earnings on the rate of change in dividends using the pooled and Fama–Macbeth regressions. The life cycle theory is tested by running a logistic regression of the dividend payment decision on two proxies of life-cycle measured by the ratio of earned to total equity. Finally, the catering theory tests the relationship between the decision to pay a dividend and the dividend premium.FindingsThe results based on a sample of Indian firms from 1992 to 2017 show that the dividend policy of Indian firms can be explained using the life-cycle theory. However, there is no evidence in support of the signaling and catering theories.Originality/valueIt provides insights into the dividend policy of Indian firms. Though there have been a few studies examining the dividend payout in India, none of the existing studies tests these theories of dividend payout. The existing research using the Indian data provides indirect evidence about the life-cycle theory. This study is the first one to test the application of these theories for Indian firms.

No abstract

No abstract

Investors with lottery preferences are known to concentrate on stocks with rare but extreme past returns. We investigate the extent to which lottery preference, measured by the MAX variable, varies with the market-wide irrational sentiment. We find that the high-MAX stocks have higher overpricing in a high-sentiment market and earn a lower alpha, compared to the low-sentiment market. Accordingly, the poor returns earned by a long-short portfolio of stocks with extreme MAX values are primarily due to the overvaluation of the high MAX-portfolio during the high sentiment phase. The higher stock volatility in India also magnifies the lottery preference of investors. JEL Classification: G4, G12, G41, G11

No abstract