Purpose

The study's purpose is to examine market returns around dividend announcements that contrast with a pattern of prior dividend announcements.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper identifies firms that have a smooth dividend pattern of once-a-year dividend increases but at some point break that pattern and announce an unchanged dividend. The sample design allows the opportunity to investigate the market reaction to unchanged dividend announcements when an increase was likely to have been expected.

Findings

The results indicate that failing to increase the dividend is associated with significantly positive abnormal returns that are greater in magnitude for more entrenched dividend-increase records, supporting a contrast-effect hypothesis.

Originality/value

The results indicate that dividends are interpreted not only relative to the immediate dividend amount but also how the decision contrasts with dividends over a prolonged period. This finding suggests that the information content of the announcement of an unchanged dividend can vary according to the prior dividend pattern.

中文翻译：

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没有消息就是好消息：未能增加股息

目的

该研究的目的是检查与先前的股息公告模式形成对比的股息公告的市场回报。

设计/方法/方法

该文件确定了具有每年一次股息增长的平稳股息模式但在某些时候打破这种模式并宣布股息不变的公司。样本设计允许有机会调查市场对未更改的股息公告的反应，而此时可能预期会增加。

发现

结果表明，未能增加股息与显着正的异常收益相关，对于更根深蒂固的股息增加记录而言，异常收益的幅度更大，这支持了对比效应假设。

原创性/价值

结果表明，红利的解释不仅与即时红利金额有关，而且还与决定与长期红利的对比。这一发现表明，宣布股息不变的信息内容可能会根据先前的股息模式而有所不同。