The Chinese market is characterized by state-controlled and closely held firms as well as significant differences in economic development and legal structures at the provincial level and corporate regulations that require firms seeking external financing to show a history of dividend payment. Using a sample of listed Chinese firms, we investigate the firm’s choice of cash or stock dividends and market reactions to the announcement of these dividend choices. We find that profitable, low leverage, high cash holding, stronger shareholder protection firms, and those firms with state ownership prior to listing and undertaking subsequent equity offerings are more likely to pay dividends and cash dividends, in particular. In addition, we find that growing firms with high levels of retained earnings and investing more in fixed assets pay stock dividends. Firms appear to cater to investor demands in setting dividend policy; hence firms with a large proportion of non-tradable shares are more likely to pay cash dividends. Consistent with the use of stock dividends to attract the attention of analysts, we find that the announcement of a stock dividend initiation is associated with significant positive market reactions and increased analyst following.

The Chinese market is characterized by state-controlled and closely held firms as well as significant differences in economic development and legal structures at the provincial level and corporate regulations that require firms seeking external financing to show a history of dividend payment. Using a sample of listed Chinese firms, we investigate the likelihood of paying dividends, different forms of dividends and market reactions to various dividend announcements. We find that profitable, low leverage, high cash holding, stronger shareholder protection firms, and those firms with state ownership prior to listing and undertaking subsequent equity offerings are more likely to pay dividends and cash dividends, in particular. Firms appear to cater to investor demands in setting dividend policy; hence firms with a large proportion of non-tradable shares are more likely to pay cash dividends. Consistent with the use of stock dividends to attract the attention of analysts, we also find that growing firms with high levels of retained earnings and greater investment in fixed assets pay stock dividends and these firms’ dividend announcements are associated with significant positive market reactions and increased analyst following.

Recent research has found a positive relationship between firm propensity to pay (PTP) and retained-earnings-to-total-equity ratio (RE/TE). Motivated by a lifecycle theory of dividends, researchers have interpreted RE/TE as a proxy for firm maturity stage. This paper shows that the RE/TE ratios are surprisingly persistent. Consequently, while high-RE/TE firms always have a high PTP, low-RE/TE firms (more than 40% of all firms actually start with a negative RE/TE) always have a low PTP and typically do not pay dividends. We present a growth type explanation for this cross-sectional persistence. Firms with low RE/TE ratios tend to be high growth firms; low (and especially negative) RE/TE ratios reflect persistently heavy issues of new equity and large R&D investments that pay off slowly—a phenomenon related to high growthtype, consistent with the prediction by a generalized Myers-Majluf model. We postulate that low-RE/TE firms, if they start paying dividends, may confuse the market and be pooled with low-growth firms that usually pay dividends. Thus, the absence of dividend paying is consistent with high growth-type and does not hinder the investment plans of low-RE/TE or high-growthtype firms. We conclude that it is growth type and not lifecycle that best explains PTP persistence.