Corporate Payout Policy (Foundations and Trends in Finance)

Corporate Payout Policy synthesizes the academic research on payout policy and explains "how much, when, and how". That is (i) the overall value of payouts over the life of the enterprise, (ii) the time profile of a firm's payouts across periods, and (iii) the form of those payouts. The authors conclude that today's theory does a good job of explaining the general features of corporate payout policies, but some important gaps remain. So while the emphasis is to clarify "what we know" about payout policy, the authors also identify a number of interesting unresolved questions for future research.

Corporate Payout Policy discusses potential influences on corporate payout policy including managerial use of payouts to signal future earnings to outside investors, individuals' behavioral biases that lead to sentiment-based demands for distributions, the desire of large block stockholders to maintain corporate control, and personal tax incentives to defer payouts.

Corporate Payout Policy is required reading for both researchers and practitioners interested in understanding this central topic in corporate finance and governance.