台灣上市公司現金股利政策之決定因素探討

Abstract

在完美的資本市場中，投資人可以自製股利，所以公司的股利政策並不會影響公司價值。但許多學者提出在實際的世界中公司為何要發現金股利的原因，這使得找出發放現金股利背後的原因是個有趣的議題，本研究的目的即是以實證研究探討現金股利的決定因素。 本研究利用五個假說探討2001年至2006年台灣上市公司現金股利政策背後的影響因素，五個假說包含測試現金股利和交易成本、公司獲利能力的關係、現金流量假說(cash flow hypothesis)、成熟假說(maturity hypothesis)，以及現金管道假說(cash channeling hypothesis)。實證結果支持現金流量假說(cash flow hypothesis)及現金管道假說(cash channeling hypothesis)；此外，台灣上市公司發放現金股利的行為亦和交易成本有關，且和公司獲利能力成高度正相關。但實證上未顯示當公司投資機會變少時，會增加發放給股東的現金股利，亦即不支持成熟假說(maturity hypothesis)。

Dividend policy does not matter to the investor in a perfect financial market as they can create homemade dividends from the market. But a lot of researches provide reasonable and convincing logic to explain why firms pay out cash dividends in the real world. So, it is interesting to find out the determinants of the cash dividend behind. The subject of this study is an empirical investigation of the determining factors of dividend policy. This study uses financial data of Taiwan listed firms from 2001 through 2006 to examine the motives behind firms for paying out cash dividends. Five hypotheses, including cash flow hypothesis, maturity hypothesis, cash channeling hypothesis and relationship between cash dividend and transaction costs and profitability, are tested in this study. The empirical results support the free cash flow hypothesis and cash channeling hypothesis. The results also indicate that cash dividend payment behaviors of the Taiwan firms are related to transaction costs and largely consistent with earning ability. But there is no evidence showing firms pay out cash dividends to stockholders when the investment opportunities of the firms decline, thus rejecting the maturity hypothesis.