Testing Dividend Signaling Theory in Turkey as an Emerging Market: Empirical Evidence From Public Firms Listed in Borsa Istanbul
Abstract
Dividends (profit share) and profitability (financial performance) still remain unarguably among the most salient attributes of financial
research. This paper is interested in empirically exploring if and how signalization theory works in general while being interested in also exploring to
what extent dividends may account for the corporate profitability being corporate financial performance in particular. Dynamic panel regressions are
performed to test our predictions on twelve (12) different models for an emerging market economy with a sampling time window spanning 2000
through 2018 for 45 listed companies. Financial firms (FFs) versus Non-Financial firms (NFFs) are examined separately and compared together.
Although results usually document that (present) dividends tend to be irrelevant in accounting for (signalling future) corporate profitability. However,
we have found evidence that dividends, for NFFs, were documented to be relevant in explaining future corporate profitability when the regressed
variable is proxied as Return on Capital which may be captured as Earnings Before Tax/Paid-in Capital. In particular, the relationship between
present corporate dividend distribution and future corporate profitability is positive, suggesting the higher (lower) the dividends the higher (lower)
the profitability. In addition, of all the models tested, for a sizeable fraction, we have also found significant linkage between the lagged and the
leadership values of the dependent variable being corporate profitability or corporate financial performance, either for FFs or NFFs if not both
Keywords
References
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Details
Primary Language
English
Subjects
Business Administration
Journal Section
Research Article
Authors
Özgür Kaymaz
0000-0003-1287-7873
Türkiye
Onder Kaymaz
*
0000-0001-9875-537X
Türkiye
Batuhan Güvemli
0000-0002-2985-5198
Türkiye
Publication Date
August 16, 2021
Submission Date
May 8, 2021
Acceptance Date
May 26, 2021
Published in Issue
Year 2021