@techreport{NBERw9995,
 title = "Appearing and Disappearing Dividends: The Link to Catering Incentives",
 author = "Malcolm Baker and Jeffrey Wurgler",
 institution = "National Bureau of Economic Research",
 type = "Working Paper",
 series = "Working Paper Series",
 number = "9995",
 year = "2003",
 month = "September",
 URL = "http://www.nber.org/papers/w9995",
 abstract = {We document a close link between fluctuations in the propensity to pay dividends and catering incentives. First, we use the methodology of Fama and French (2001) to identify a total of four distinct trends in the propensity to pay dividends between 1963 and 2000. Second, we show that each of these trends lines up with a corresponding fluctuation in catering incentives: The propensity to pay increases when a proxy for the stock market dividend premium is positive and decreases when it is negative. The lone disconnect is attributable to Nixon-era controls.},
}