Abstract
The aim of this article is to identify and characterise the relationship between the ownership structure and dividend pay‑out of listed companies. The research hypothesis states that along with an increase in a degree of ownership concentration both the propensity to pay a dividend and its amount increase. The research has been conducted on a group of 354 non‑financial companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. The basic research method is the analysis of logistic and tobit regression. The research shows that along with an increase in the complexity of the ownership structure, the share of the State Treasury, institutional investors and board members, decisions on dividend pay‑out are made more often, and the amount of dividend is higher. Examining the degree of ownership concentration expressed by the Herfindahl‑Hirschman index, diversified results have been obtained. An estimation of some regression models shows that stronger ownership concentration favours the decision to pay a dividend (dividends are paid out more frequently), however, as a degree of ownership concentration increases, a decrease in the amount of dividend is observed.
 The research results presented in this article are a supplement to the existing analyses carried out on the global markets and an extension of the existing research conducted on the companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.
Highlights
A dividend policy concerns the division of net profit into the part left in the com‐t pany and the part which is transferred to the shareholders as a dividend
They indicate the existence of statistically significant relationship between the share of institu‐ tional investors in the ownership structure and the amount of dividend pay‐out
An increase in return on assets of 1% resulted in an increase in dividend pay‐out of approx. 4.6–5.5%
Summary
A dividend policy concerns the division of net profit into the part left in the com‐. Some studies show that if managers receive shares of the company, they start to behave like shareholders and adopt shareholders’ goals, which results, among others, in higher dividend pay‐out (Lace, Bistrova, o Kozlovskis, 2013: 259; Smith, Pennathur, Marciniak, 2017: 38). It is known that institutional investors usually have a great capital involvement in the company, so they can control managers and decide about dividend pay‐outs. Some studies show that an increase in ownership concentration re‐ sults in a higher dividend It is explained by the strong control and strong impact of the dominant shareholder on achieving the shareholders’ goals, including divi‐ dend payment (Mancinelli, Ozkan, 2006: 265). The Herfindahl‐Hirschman index which is a measure of ownership concentration in the year t – 1 It is calculated by squaring the share of votes of each notified investor and summing up the results. Information about the share of votes and finan‐ cial data is obtained from the Notoria Serwis database and InfoStrefa.com portal
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