No abstract

Dividend policy is determined by a company's board of directors (BOD) and is used to make dividend decisions. Dividend is a fragment of a firm's distributable earnings1 that is announced by the firm's BOD with inputs from senior management (Baker, 2009). The dividends are determined according to the class of the firm's shareholders. Dividends can be given out as payments in cash, shares of stock or other assets. Dividend payment also affects the firm's ability to continue its earning in sustaining growth opportunities and shareholder wealth. The Asian financial crisis was a wake-up call for all Asian markets to recognise the structural issue that played an important part towards the disaster. Asian firms have however improved their corporate governance and transparency after the crisis. Consequently, the bond markets3 and equity markets4 especially in the United States, United Kingdom and Europe started to look into the prices of the Asian market. The investors found sustainable growth and income in the Asian market. Moreover, Asian countries for the last two decades have improved considerably and have been the driving engine for the world economic growth. Since firms in the Asian countries are not just about capital growth, firm's dividends are becoming the main sources of income for investors. Hence, distributing cash to shareholders via alternatives such as qualified dividends, stock splits and stock dividends, has increased significantly in many countries. In defining the determinants of dividend policy, numerous empirical studies have been conducted in many countries. Earlier studies include Lintner (1956) and Miller & Modigliani (1961). However, application of the dividend policy may be different across countries, either in terms of legal system or firm-specific differences. The differences complicate the transferability of dividend payments and decisions. Thus, dividend policy may vary across countries specifically in Singapore, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia, that over a period of time, has not been empirically investigated. Persistent focus on the developed market is another issue that endows fuzziness regarding dividend policy. Abandoning the developing and emerging markets also deters further new outlooks (Jabbouri, 2016). Keywords: Dividend policy, Generalized Method of Moment, Dynamic panel, key determinants

Objective - Despite much previous research on the issue, dividend policy remains an unsolved conundrum in corporate finance. By considering this, the goal of this research is to use the Generalized Method of Moments to examine dividend behaviour by identifying the key determinants of dividend policy in three different countries with different market microstructures: Singapore (developed market), Malaysia (developing market), and Saudi Arabia (emerging market). Methodology/Technique –. The study uses data from each country's top 100 listed firms from 2007 until 2016. The results suggest that different determinants influence firms’ dividend policies for the three countries. Findings - For Singapore as a developed market, profitability, and size are shown to be significantly and positively related to the dividend payout ratio, whereas leverage, business risk, and growth opportunities exert a significant negative effect. Meanwhile, for Malaysia (a developing market), only firm size is a significant and positive determinant. However, leverage and business risk are negatively and significantly associated with the dividend payout ratio. Conversely, for Saudi Arabia as an emerging market, firm size and leverage positively and negatively influence the dividend payout ratio. Novelty - Therefore, this study employed the generalized method of moments (GMM) to uncover novel discoveries. The findings should motivate analysts, policymakers, institutional investors, and investors to investigate the dividend policy conundrum, mainly for three different market segmentations. Type of Paper: Empirical JEL Classification: G32, M14. Keywords: Dividend behaviour, market microstructure, and Generalized Method of Moments. Reference to this paper should be referred to as follows: Shafai, N.A; Yusuf, N.H.M; Shah, N.S.B; Bulot, N. (2023). Different Market Segmentations of Dividend Policies: A Dynamic Panel Data Analysis, Acc. Fin. Review, 7(4), 01 – 11. https://doi.org/10.35609/afr.2023.7.4(1)