Dynamics of Dividend Payout in Emerging Stock Markets

Dividends are part of company earnings distributed to shareholders in different forms. The subject of cash dividend payout continue to puzzle finance theorists and researchers especially with regard to "why", "how" and whether there is "consistency" in payout for firms,sectors and markets. Finance scholars do not seem to agree on answers to these questions even when analyzing the same factors. This book delves into the puzzle in the hope of finding answers to these questions using panel data from Nairobi Securities Exchange. Predictors of dividend payout are isolated from two metric variables(earnings and Prior dividends) and two non metric variables(Growth prospects and business risk. The question of whether dividend stability or smoothing is a motivation and which dividend model best explains policy of payout by corporate managers is investigated. Results and recommendations would be useful to finance scholars, Corporate managers, individual and institutional investors,researchers and practitioners. The capital market regulators and asset managers may also use the outcomes to make better policy, investment and financing decisions.