We investigate the relative informativeness of earnings and dividends for firms with dual class capital structures. In these firms, two classes of common stock create a separation between cash flow rights and voting rights. Despite the concentrated ownership in the dual class firms, we find significantly lower informativeness of earnings, in the form of a weaker returns-earnings association, th...

We examine the interaction between capital structure and dividend initiation. Reasons often given for the positive abnormal return when firms initiate dividends are the signaling of asymmetric information and the reductions of agency costs. Theory also suggests that these are reasons for choosing debt in the capital structure. This study finds that the effect of initiating dividends is dampened...

This paper analyzes the effect of repatriation taxes on dividend payments by the foreign affiliates of American multinational firms. The United States taxes the foreign incomes of American companies, grants credits for any foreign income taxes paid, and defers any taxes due on the unrepatriated earnings for those affiliates that are separately incorporated abroad. This system thereby imposes re...