Analysis of the determinants of dividend policy: evidence from manufacturing companies in Tanzania

Abstract

This paper examines the determinants of dividend policy of manufacturing companies listed on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange in Tanzania. Two measures of dividend policy namely, dividend yield and dividend payout are examined over the 2008-2016 period. In addition, three proxies of profitability namely return on assets ratio, return on equity ratio, and the ratio of earnings per share are applied in separate specifications. Similarly, investment opportunities are measured using the ratio of retained earnings to total assets and market to book value ratio. Other explanatory variables are liquidity, business risk, firm size, firm growth and gearing ratio. For inferential analysis, 12 regression models are specified and estimated depending on the measurements of dividend policy, profitability, and collinearity between retained earnings to total assets and market to book value ratios. Empirical results show that the determinants of dividend policy vary across the proxies of dividend policy, profitability and investment opportunities. On one hand, return on equity, retained earnings to total assets ratio, market to book value ratio, business risk and size of the firms tend to have a significant effect on dividend yield. On the other hand, liquidity, business risk, and retained earnings to total assets ratio seem to affect dividend payout. Meanwhile, return on asset ratio tends to have an effect on both dividend yield and dividend payout when excluding liquidity in the regression models. Overall, dividend yield as a measure of dividend policy and return on equity as measure of profitability provide better results. The main implication of these results is that managers should consider the major determinants of dividend yield ratio while formulating the appropriate dividend policy for a firm.