A Fisherian Approach to the Dividend Puzzle: Taxes, Consumption, and Risk Diversification

Abstract

This paper presents an alternative theory explaining why firms adopt dividend policies of various kinds at intermediate levels. We extend the dividend clientele model from a traditional corner-solution framework to an interior-solution framework. For some investors, intertemporal double taxation and transaction costs produce a V-shaped function that is inflected at the point where the dividend payment just satisfies the investor's current liquidity needs. Because, generally speaking, clientele effects and risk diversification are not completely compatible, a firm's dividend pattern is expected to be consistent with the median shareholder's intertemporal consumption allocation when consumption preferences dominate tax preferences for majority shareholders.