A Catering Theory of Dividends
提出公司是否发放股利取决于投资者对派息股的需求：当投资者给予派息股溢价时，管理者迎合需求发放股利；反之则不发放。通过四种基于股价的投资者需求指标验证了这一预测。
ABSTRACT We propose that the decision to pay dividends is driven by prevailing investor demand for dividend payers. Managers cater to investors by paying dividends when investors put a stock price premium on payers, and by not paying when investors prefer nonpayers. To test this prediction, we construct four stock price‐based measures of investor demand for dividend payers. By each measure, nonpayers tend to initiate dividends when demand is high. By some measures, payers tend to omit dividends when demand is low. Further analysis confirms that these results are better explained by catering than other theories of dividends.