Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2-2023

Abstract

We investigate whether and how CEO marital status is related to dividend policy. We find that firms run by single CEOs are less likely to pay dividends. Further analyses reveal that the aforementioned relation is stronger for single CEOs who are more risk-seeking, have compensation packages with lower pay-performance sensitivity, are less conservative, or are less engaged in corporate social responsibility activities. Our results hold in multiple robustness and endogeneity tests, including propensity score matching, difference-in-differences estimation, and an instrumental variable regression. Overall, our findings contribute to the literature highlighting the importance of CEOs' personal attributes for corporate decisions.

Comments

Original published version available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2022.102342

Publication Title

Journal of Corporate Finance

DOI

10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2022.102342

Available for download on Sunday, February 09, 2025

Included in

Accounting Commons

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