THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BOARD CHARACTERISTICS AND CORPORATE DIVIDEND POLICY: EVIDENCE FROM JORDAN

Öz

This paper examines the impact of Board characteristics (board size, board independence, and board gender) on the corporate policy of dividend for a set of 128 firm-year listed companies of the manufacturing sector from Amman Stock Exchange between the years 2016-2018. The board directors have a great influence in handling the agency conflict. They approve any decision made by the executive manager before any decisions made in any manner. Also, dividends can be used as a tool of mitigating agency conflict. The paper uses panel data approach in analyzing the sample and the results show that there is a positive relationship between the Board of directors' characteristics (Board size, board diversity depicted as outside directors and board gender) and the corporate dividend policy. Our recommendations are that Jordanian manufacturing companies should comply with the Jordanian code of corporate governance and diversify their corporate boards of directors by appointing more outside directors and more female directors within their boards. This will also help to create a healthy relationship between the boards and the owners of the firms or the shareholders and minimize the agency conflict theory.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Corporate dividend policy
• board characteristics
• board diversity
• women on boards
• Amman stock Exchange

Kaynakça

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