Vol. 8 No. 2 (2020): Business & Management Studies: An International Journal
Articles

DETERMINANTS OF PAYOUT POLICY: AN ANALYSIS ON TURKISH MANUFACTURING FIRMS

Bahadır ERGÜN
Asisst. Prof., Adana Alparslan Türkeş Scince and Technology University

Published 2020-06-25

Keywords

  • Dividend;,
  • Dividend Payout Policy;,
  • Turkish Manufacturing Firms
  • Kar Payı;,
  • Kar Payı Politikası;,
  • Türk İmalar Firmaları

How to Cite

ERGÜN, B. (2020). DETERMINANTS OF PAYOUT POLICY: AN ANALYSIS ON TURKISH MANUFACTURING FIRMS. Business & Management Studies: An International Journal, 8(2), 1803–1822. https://doi.org/10.15295/bmij.v8i2.1488

Abstract

1. LITERATURE

1.1. RESEARCH SUBJECT
A dividend is the allocated amount of the company’s earnings to the stockholders. On the one hand, it is expected to be strictly related to the financial resource management and performance of maximizing shareholder wealth by deciding to pay, not to pay, to pay different from the previous years. On the other hand, the dividend irrelevance theory of Miller and Modigliani (1961) suggests that the value of the firm is irrelevant to the payout ratio, but it is related to the earning power and risk of its assets. In a perfect world, the value of the firm is not affected by the dividend distribution decisions (Gitman and Zutter, 2011). In the real world, due to the differences in taxation, information asymmetry, agency problems, transaction costs, this irrelevance argument is challenged. So, the researchers have developed dividend theories to explain why and when firms distribute or do not distribute dividends (Baker, 2009; Baker, Kılınçarslan and Arsal, 2018). After the seminal paper of Lintner (1956) lots of models have been developed to describe why firms should pay dividends, why they should not, the irrelevance of distributing or not distributing, when should they distribute it, which signals can be sent to the current and potential shareholders. The payout policy decision is also called the payout puzzle, due to these theories which sometimes contradict or support each other. Baker, et. al. (2018) list the dividend theories which may be important in explaining dividend decisions in the Turkish market. These theories are bird-in-the-hand theory, signaling theory, agency cost theory, tax-preference theory, tax clientele effect, catering theory, residual dividend theory, maturity (firm life cycle) theory, substitute model of dividends. In addition to these theories, there is a huge literature that tries to determine the factors that affect payout policy. The studies in this literature generally use firm-level and sometimes macro-level independent variables to identify the payout policy of the firms (see. Amidu and Abor, 2006; Al-Malkawi, 2007; Ahmed and Javid, 2008; Afza and Mirza, 2010; Gupta and Banga, 2010; Singhania and Gupta, 2012; Patra, Poshakwale and Ow-Yong, 2012; Kaźmierska-Jóźwiak, 2015; Jabbouri, 2016; Chang, Chang and Dutta, 2020; Yıldız, Gökbulut and Korkmaz, 2014; Kuzucu, 2015; Ersoy and Çetenak, 2015; Al-Najjar and Kılınçarslan, 2016; Abdioğlu, 2016; Erdaş, 2017; Özvar and Ersoy, 2017; Karaçayır and Sağlam, 2017; Kılınçarslan, 2018; Al-Najjar and Kılınçarslan, 2018).

1.2. RESEARCH PURPOSE AND IMPORTANCE
The dividend payout policy is one of the most important decisions that financial managers have to make. This study aims to reveal the factors affecting the dividend policy of the Turkish listed firms that operate in the manufacturing industry.

1.3. CONTRIBUTION of the ARTICLE to the LITERATURE
Exploring the determinants of the payout policy of the firms listed on BIST with recent data and trying to depict the effect of some chosen macro-level variables are the main contribution of the study to the literature.

2. DESIGN AND METHOD

2.1. DATA COLLECTION METHOD
The data of 168 firms listed on Borsa Istanbul between 2005 and 2017 is used. The Finnet Database and Word Bank Database are used to obtain the firm-level and macro-level variables, respectively. The firm-level variables are deflated by utilizing 2005 producer price index. And, minimum-maximum (out of firm age and macro-level variables) 1% values are clipped to avoid the effects of extreme values.

2.2. QUANTITATIVE / QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS
Random effect Tobit model is employed to determine the factors affecting the payout policy of the Turkish listed firms in the manufacturing industry, in accordance with the features of the dependent variable.

2.3. RESEARCH MODEL
The dependent variable of the research is the payout ratio. And, two models have been established. The first one only contains the firm-level independent variables. These are leverage, firm size, firm age, investment rate, cash flow rate, and growth of the sales. Additionally, the second model contains the growth of gross domestic product (GDP) and inflation rate.

3. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
The results show that an increase in leverage and investment rate reduces the dividend payout ratio, while an increase in size, age, and cash-flow ratio enhances it. Moreover, future growth opportunities (growth in sales) variable has a positive but insignificant effect on dividend payout ratio. Finally, a positive but insignificant effect of economic growth and negative but insignificant effect of inflation are observed.

4. CONCLUSION, RECOMMENDATION AND LIMITATIONS
In the payout literature, there are lots of studies that search the determiners of the factors and affect the payout decisions of the firm. On the one hand, although some studies reach similar findings, no consensus has been reached; on the other hand, no one should not expect one. The results vary according to the economic structure that the firms operate in, conjuncture, legal environment, tax regulations, etc. In this study, the positive effects of size, age, cash flow, and negative effects of leverage and investment are observed to the payout policy of the listed Turkish firms that operate in the manufacturing industry.  

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

  1. Abdioğlu, N. (2016). On the Determinants of Corporate Dividend Policy: A Tobit Model Approach. Yönetim ve Ekonomi Araştırmaları Dergisi, 14(1), 332–345. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.11611/JMER847
  2. Afza, T., & Mirza, H. H. (2010). Ownership structure and cash flows as determinants of corporate dividend policy in Pakistan. International Business Research, 3(3), 210–221. Retrieved from http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2019549
  3. Ahmed, H., & Javid, A. Y. (2008). Dynamics and determinants of dividend policy in Pakistan ( evidence from Karachi stock exchange non-financial listed firms ). In Munich Personal RePEc Archive.
  4. Al-Malkawi, H.-A. N. (2007). Determinants of Corporate Dividend Policy in Jordan: An Application of the Tobit Model. Journal of Economic and Administrative Sciences, 23(2), 44–70. https://doi.org/10.1179/str.2007.54.4.006
  5. Al-Najjar, B., & Kilincarslan, E. (2016). The effect of ownership structure on dividend policy: evidence from Turkey. Corporate Governance (Bingley), 16(1), 135–161. https://doi.org/10.1108/CG-09-2015-0129
  6. Al-najjar, B., & Kılınçarslan, E. (2018). Revisiting Firm-Specific Determinants of Dividend Policy: Evidence from Turkey. Economic Issues, 23(1), 1–45.
  7. Amidu, M., & Abor, J. (2006). Determinants of dividend payout ratios in Ghana. Journal of Risk Finance, 7(2), 136–145. https://doi.org/10.1108/15265940610648580
  8. Baker, H. K. (2009). Dividends and Dividend Policy. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons Inc.
  9. Baker, H. K., Kılınçarslan, E., & Arsal, A. H. (2018). Dividend policy in Turkey: Survey evidence from Borsa Istanbul firms. Global Finance Journal, 35(April 2017), 43–57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfj.2017.04.002
  10. Chang, M., Chang, B., & Dutta, S. (2020). National Culture, Firm Characteristics, and Dividend Policy. Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, 56(1), 149–163. https://doi.org/10.1080/1540496X.2019.1627518
  11. Erdaş, L. (2017). Kâr payı dağıtım politikasını etkileyen işletmelere özgü faktörlerin belirlenmesi: Borsa İstanbul-30 endeksi üzerine bir uygulama. Journal of Life Economics, 4(2), 49–76. Retrieved from https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/jlecon/issue/29663/318653
  12. Ersoy, E., & Çetenak, E. H. (2015). Sahiplik Yoğunlaşmasının Temettü Dağıtım Kararlarına Etkisi: Borsa İstanbul da Bir Uygulama. Ege Akademik Bakis (Ege Academic Review), 15(4), 509–509. https://doi.org/10.21121/eab.2015416651
  13. Gitman, L. J., & Zutter, C. J. (2011). Principles of Managerial Finance (13th ed.). Pearson.
  14. Gupta, A., & Banga, C. (2010). The Determinants of Corporate Dividend Policy. Decision, 37(2).
  15. Jabbouri, I. (2016). Determinants of corporate dividend policy in emerging markets: Evidence from MENA stock markets. Research in International Business and Finance, 37, 283–298. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ribaf.2016.01.018
  16. Karaçayır, E., & Sağlam, M. (2017). Firmaların Kâr Dağıtımını Etkileyen Faktörler: Borsa İstanbul’da Ampirik Bir Uygulama. Akademik Sosyal Araştırmalar Dergisi, 5(57), 445–454. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107415324.004
  17. Kaźmierska-Jóźwiak, B. (2015). Determinants of Dividend Policy: Evidence from Polish Listed Companies. Procedia Economics and Finance, 23(October 2014), 473–477. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2212-5671(15)00490-6
  18. Kılınçarslan, E. (2018). The factors determining dividend policy of financial firms listed on the Borsa Istanbul. Boğaziçi Journal Review of Social, Economic and Administrative Studies, 32(1), 75–109. https://doi.org/10.21773/boun.32.1.5
  19. Kuzucu, N. (2015). Determinants of Dividend Policy: A Panel Data Analysis for Turkish Listed Firms. International Journal of Business and Management, 10(11), 149. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v10n11p149
  20. Lintner, J. (1956). Distribution of incomes of corporations among dividends, retained earnings, and taxes. The American Economic Review, 46(2), 97–113. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.151.3712.867-a
  21. Miller, M. H., & Modigliani, F. (1961). Dividend Policy, Growth, and the Valuation of Shares. The Journal of Business, 34(4), 411. https://doi.org/10.1086/294442
  22. Özvar, K., & Ersoy, E. (2017). Sahiplik Yapısının Kâr Dağıtım Kararlarına Etkisi: Panel Tobit Yöntemiyle Bir Analiz. Finansal Araştırmalar ve Çalışmalar Dergisi, (1986), 61–79. https://doi.org/10.14784/marufacd.346196
  23. Patra, T., Poshakwale, S., & Ow-Yong, K. (2012). Determinants of corporate dividend policy in Greece. Applied Financial Economics, 22(13), 1079–1087. https://doi.org/10.1080/09603107.2011.639734
  24. Singhania, M., & Gupta, A. (2012). Determinants of Corporate Dividend Policy: A Tobit Model Approach. Vision: The Journal of Business Perspective, 16(3), 153–162. https://doi.org/10.1177/0972262912460152
  25. Yıldız, B., Gökbulut, R. İ., & Korkmaz, T. (2014). Firmalarda Temettü Politikalarını Etkileyen Unsurlar: BİST Sanayi İşletmeleri Üzerine Bir Panel Veri Uygulaması. Ekonomik ve Sosyal Araştırmalar Dergisi, 10(1), 185–206.