TY  - JOUR
AU  - Becker,Bo
AU  - Ivković,Zoran
AU  - Weisbenner,Scott
TI  - Local Dividend Clienteles
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 15175
PY  - 2009
Y2  - July 2009
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15175
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15175.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Bo Becker
Harvard Business School
Baker Library 349
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
Tel: 617/496-5335
Fax: 617/495-7659
E-Mail: bbecker@hbs.edu

Zoran Ivkovich
Department of Finance
Michigan State University
315 Eppley Center
East Lansing, MI 48824
Tel: (517) 353-4593
E-Mail: ivkovich@bus.msu.edu

Scott Weisbenner
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Department of Finance
340 Wohlers Hall, MC-706
1206 South Sixth Street
Champaign, IL  61820
Tel: 217/333-0872
Fax: 217/244-9867
E-Mail: weisbenn@illinois.edu
AB  - We exploit demographic variation to identify the effect of dividend demand on corporate payout policy. Retail investors tend to hold local stocks and older investors prefer dividend-paying stocks. Together, these tendencies generate geographically-varying demand for dividends. Firms headquartered in areas in which seniors constitute a large fraction of the population are more likely to pay dividends, initiate dividends, and have higher dividend yields. We also provide indirect evidence as to why managers may respond to the demand for dividends from local seniors. Overall, these results are consistent with the notion that the investor base affects corporate policy choices.
ER  -