Dividend policy, agency costs and board independence
by Allam Mohammed Hamdan
International Journal of Critical Accounting (IJCA), Vol. 10, No. 1, 2018

Abstract: This study aims to investigate the moderation role of board independence on the relationship between dividend policy and agency costs. We develop a formal model of a firm that chooses a dividend to minimise the sum of its agency costs of paying dividends with the role independent outsiders board members. The study used panel data with random-effect model for 237 firms from four Gulf Cooperation Council (henceforth, GCC) countries: Bahrain, Oman, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates for a period of 13 years from 2003-2015. We find that dividends are positively related to asset utilisation, the GCC firms resort to dividend policy in order to reduce free cash flow, eventually reducing agency costs. Furthermore, the findings revealed that the inclusion of board independence as a moderating variable has influenced positively the relationship between dividend policy and reducing agency costs.

Online publication date: Fri, 13-Apr-2018

The full text of this article is only available to individual subscribers or to users at subscribing institutions.

 
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.

Pay per view:
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.

Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Critical Accounting (IJCA):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:

Username:        Password:          Forgotten your password?

Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.

If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com