ABSTRACT

Heaping is defined as a cognitive bias to round numbers even if precise results are desired. This article targets on dividends in four key European markets (Germany, France, the UK, and Switzerland) over the 1981–2019 period. We hypothesize and report that the change of currency in Germany and France (they both adopted the Euro in January 1999) significantly influenced the characteristics of heaping observed in the dividends both in the short and in the long run. We also report that consistent with the prior literature, the probability of rounding of dividends in each country is significantly related to both information uncertainty and dividend size. In the UK and Switzerland heaping increases over time for the full 1981–2019 period for all designated rounding intervals. For Germany and France heaping increases for all rounding intervals during the 1981–1998 period, but the adoption of the Euro leads to a drastic reduction of heaping that lasts several years in both markets. In the long run, after the adoption of the Euro, the likelihood of heaping recovers for small rounding intervals, but remains well below the previous levels for larger rounding intervals.

摘要

堆被定义为即使需要精确的结果也对舍入数字的认知偏差。本文针对 1981 年至 2019 年期间四个主要欧洲市场（德国、法国、英国和瑞士）的股息。我们假设并报告说，德国和法国的货币变化（它们都在 1999 年 1 月采用了欧元）显着影响了短期和长期红利中观察到的堆积特征。我们还报告说，与先前的文献一致，每个国家的股息四舍五入的概率与信息不确定性和股息规模都显着相关。在英国和瑞士，对于所有指定的舍入间隔，整个 1981-2019 年期间的堆积都会随着时间的推移而增加。对于德国和法国而言，1981 年至 1998 年期间所有四舍五入时间间隔内的堆积都增加了，但欧元的采用导致两个市场持续数年的堆积急剧减少。从长远来看，在采用欧元后，在较小的舍入间隔内堆积的可能性会恢复，但在较大的舍入间隔内仍远低于先前的水平。