Research On The Dividend Policy Of Listed Companies Based On Agency Cost Theory

Equity Division is the unique phenomenon on Chinese stock market under the special historical background. Not only the development of securities markets is hindered, but also the interests of minority shareholders and other relevant people is also harmed, leading up to increasingly prominent agency problems between shareholders. The equity division reform began in May 2005, aiming up to optimize the dividend policy, improve capital market efficiency and reduce agency costs. By the end of 2009, equity division reform was nearly finished, but the argue of whether the initial goal had been completed and whether the aim of reducing agency costs, optimizing the capital market and "with shares of the same rights" was reached is still studied by domestic scholars in many aspects, but issue of the influence of variation of agency problems during the Equity Division reform on dividend policy is often neglected.Therefore, data of the reform effect on dividend policy is provided and dividend policy theory is enriched by this paper studying in the perspective of agency cost on the background of Equity Division reform.This paper is divided into five chapters. Chapter one proposes study ideas and methods, based on domestic and abroad achievements and then put forward innovation and deficiencies of this paper. The theory of western dividend policy is summarized for the research of Chinese dividend policy. Factors of affecting dividend policy are summarized in the third chapter, while the applicability of the theory of western dividend policy in China is discussed, and then combined with the characteristics of our market, the mechanism of Equity Division reform on dividend policy is analyzed in depth and the characteristics of dividend policy in China are summarized at last. The information of the same listed companies for three Continuous years is selected for the descriptive statistics and regression analysis of influence on dividend policy during the reform in Chapter Four. Not only supporting data are provided for the analysis of changes of influencing factors on dividend policy, the variation of dividend is also explained under the background of Equity Division reform. Following basic conclusions are drawn based on theoretical and empirical research in Chapter five:the theory of dividend policy introduced from west does not fully apply to the Chinese market. The contrastive power of effect factor of dividend policy is change by Equity Division reform, therefore the dividend policy is regulated and the agency problem is also alleviated to some extent, but the conflict between the agent and principal is still serious. Finally, reasonable proposals are put forward for the further development of Chinese stock markets on this paper.Domestic study on dividend policy theory has focused on factors of internal governance, the market environment etc., while ignoring serious agency problem of Chinese listed companies, not to mention the empirical research on dividend policy in the agency cost perspective under the background of the Equity Division reform. Whether the share reform to the agency problem is solved and the dividend policy is optimized are tested in theoretical and empirical way from this new perspective on this paper. Past research on dividend policy from the perspective of the agency cost didn't take into account the affect of share reform or the important factor of reform process. Continuous data from the same company of three years are selected and the time of reform ending of selected samples are all in 2006 for the sake of increasing longitudinal comparability of statistics and more accurate analysis of influence of reform on dividend policy.