Dividend behavior in Malaysia

Abstract

The paper estimates the dividend behaviour model for Malaysia using the annual time series data for the period 1983 to 1992, and the cross-section data for the 23 selected firms representing various sectors of the economy. The results have good fits, and they indicate that the current earnings and previous year s dividend are the only two universal and significant explanatory variables for dividend, and thus they support the Lintner s model. Depreciation and the two period change in sales have assumed the correctly singed and significant coefficients only in a few cases. The average value of the earnings multiplier is found to be 0.31 and that of the lagged dividend 0.38, the latter implying an adjustment coefficient of 0.62.