An empirical investigation of the impact of firm characteristics on the smoothness of dividend

Abstract

This paper empirically investigates the smoothness of dividends on non-financial companies in Jordan by applying the asymmetric partial adjustment model. In addition, this research investigated the data for 65 non-financial companies (37 industrial and 28 services) listed on the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) covering the period 1997–2020. Fixed and random-effects techniques have been applied to check the smoothness of dividends. The results confirmed that the non-financial Jordanian companies smooth their dividends at a moderate rate, our results contradict the signaling theory; we find that large companies smooth their dividend faster than small ones. Furthermore, in line with the agency cost theory, low-leveraged firms smooth their dividends faster than high-leveraged firms. Also, our results confirmed that highly profitable companies smooth their dividend more and this comes in line with the signaling theory.