Research On The Cash Dividend Policy Of Chinese Listed Company Based On Agency Cost Theory

This paper tries to analyze the agency cost affection on dividend policy in listed companies. Refering to the dividend policy, many foreign scholars have done much research and achieved different conclusions. However, in our country, since the stock market is very young, such research is still a beginning. Most of our listed companies come from the national enterprises, so there exists special share ownership structure and corporate governance structure, resulting in the serious agency problem. Besides, the market mechanism is imperfect. All these factors make the dividend policy very optional, called "the dividend puzzle in China". Research on this problem will help the stock market develop healthily.This paper uses both standardized research and empirical approach. From the angle of theory, first, this paper has introduced one of the main theories of dividend policy in the west- agency cost theory, and classified the existing domestic studies in this field, summed up the characteristics of the cash dividend in our listed companies and made theoretical analysis based on the agency cost theory. From the angle of demonstration, this paper has selected 1999-2006, Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets only issuing A shares of listed companies as samples, through the establishment of two models- cash dividend distribution factor model and the level of cash dividend paid factor model, use maximum likelihood estimation method and multiple linear regression analysis to study the factors which affect the cash dividends. The results showed that the agency relationship between the shareholders and creditors is of great impact on the cash dividends. Also, the agency relationship between the shareholders and managers has had a certain impact on it. Although the agency relationship between large and small shareholders has a significant impact on the dividend policy, the special nature of China's security market makes the impact even more complex. Finally, aiming at the agency problem embodied in the dividend policy, the author has advanced some proposals which will help build standarddividend policy and promote the capital market's development.