Dividends and Stakeholder Conflicts: A Cleaner Test

Abstract

This paper compares the dividend policy of firms controlled by owners to firms where owners have a minority stake relative to non-owning employees, customers, and the local community. We find that regardless of whether owners or non-owners control the firm, the strong stakeholder uses the dividend decision to mitigate rather than intensify the conflict with the weak stakeholder. This result is inconsistent with the outcome model and consistent with the substitution model of payout policy, which argues that power abuse in dividend decisions is discouraged by costly effects at a later stage. Indirect evidence supports this interpretation.