Anmerkungen:
Nach Informationen von SSRN wurde die ursprüngliche Fassung des Dokuments January 5, 2022 erstellt
Beschreibung:
We examine geographical peer effects on firms’ corporate payout decisions. We hypothesize that the geographical interconnections between firms, as well as the characteristics of the local dividend markets in which they operate, influence their dividend decisions. Using data on US public firms, we find that a firm’s decision to increase, initiate and decrease dividends are all influenced by the dividend decisions of their local peers. These effects are more pronounced in geographies with higher investment demand from local retail and institutional investors and in localities with a higher concentration of dividend payouts between few locally competing firms. Overall, our findings suggest that local peer effects arise due to the presence of local dividend clienteles and firms’ responsiveness to local market pressures. Our results are robust to different methods of peer selection, sampling, and estimation procedures