现金股利:传递盈利信号还是起监督治理作用

Cash Dividend: Signaling Earning Information or Supervising Corporate Governance

西方学者关于股利问题的研究表明,现金股利公告能够产生相应的股价变动,对此股利信号理论和自由现金流量假说提出了不同的解释。本文研究1994—2001年的962次现金股利公告,对比两个理论在我国上市公司现金股利发放行为中的解释力。实证结果表明自由现金流量假说比股利信号理论更能解释现金股利公告的市场行为:现金股利约束自由现金流量代理成本的监督治理作用不可忽视。

Signaling theory and Hypothesis of Free Cash Flow (FCF) are two main theories on cash dividend. This paper compares them by Event Study on the announcements of cash dividend from 1994 to 2001 in China. The result shows that the hypothesis of FCF explains price fluctuations around dividend announcements better, so indicates cash dividend played a role on supervising corporate governance more than signaling earning information.