Author(s): Muhammed YILMAZ* and Sadiye OKTAY
Dividend distribution decisions are one of the important financial decision types that are still being discussed since the day corporate finance theories appeared. Cash dividend distribution is still one of the most widely used dividend distribution types in practice. This study aims to investigate the factors at the firm and country level that affect the cash dividend distribution decisions of firms with a data set obtained around the world. The data set of the study consists of 22,654 firms operating in 62 countries and a total of 163,599 observations from 2009 to 2019. According to the results of this research conducted with the method of the Ordinary Least Squares test; Firm-level variables such as profitability, size, cash, and research and development expenditures of firms have a significant and positive effect while leverage and firm risk have a significant and negative effect on cash dividend distribution decisions. In addition, it has been determined that domestic savings and the inflation rate of the countries in which the firms operate have a positive effect on dividend distribution decisions. Finally, it is seen that firms operating in countries that have adopted the common law as the legal structure of the country tend to distribute more dividends. Therefore, there are many countries and firms in this study so this situation significantly increased the number of observations of the study and provided robustness and reliability of the results. Hereby the number of observations, the selection of the variable group, and created of the model show the mighty and originality of this study. Furthermore, this study is thought to be a guide and contribute to the literature, practitioners, and existing and potential investors from a different perspective.
The Journal of International Social Research received 8982 citations as per Google Scholar report
