Research background: We examine the dividend payout policies across companies listed on the main stock exchanges in Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS). Unlike the highly developed capital markets, the literature regarding dividend policy on BRICS? stock exchanges is scarce. Purpose of the article: The purpose of this paper is threefold: verification of the existence of dividend smoothing pattern; selection of the significant drivers that affect both dividend levels and dividend smoothing; examination of differences between dividend policy of cross- and single-listed companies. Methods: Based on a dataset of 564 companies that paid dividends for at least 11 consecutive years in the period of 1995?2015, we apply a GMM two-step estimator to assess the speed of dividend adjustment (SOA) coefficient. Further we employ the linear panel regression to indicate the individual and market determinants of the dividend levels and SOAs. In the latter case, we base on time series of the SOAs obtained from the rolling estimation technique. Finally, we conduct separate estimations for cross-listed companies. Findings & value added: We confirm a moderate level of dividend smoothing within BRICS countries. Among the firm-level characteristics affecting the SOA the most important are: ownership dispersion, age and size of a firm, retained earnings, leverage, long term debt, asset tangibility, liquidity risk ratio, and issuing the depositary receipts (DR). Two relevant market factors are found: market capitalisation and turnover in relation to GDP. Similar characteristics have a significant impact on dividends? levels in the entire sample, whereas in the subsample of cross-listed companies fewer variables are significant. Our paper is the first comprehensive attempt to investigate the dividend policy and determinants of dividend smoothing among BRICS countries.

We examined the smoothing pattern of dividends on publicly stock-listed companies in the so-called Asian Tigers – China, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand. Based on a panel of data comprising 702 companies from 2000 to 2015, we estimated the speed of dividend adjustment (SOA) using a generalized method of moments two-step estimator. Having implemented an improved procedure using a rolling regression, we obtained the SOA coefficient equal to 0.447, which confirmed a moderate level of dividend smoothing among the selected countries. Moreover, we examined the SOA’s drivers by employing a range of variables reflecting the companies’ and the countries’ characteristics. The most influential firm-level determinants of dividend smoothing in emerging Asian markets were payout ratio, retained earnings and level of risk proxied by the return on asset standard deviation. Additionally, we identified the relevance of the financial market sophistication and board efficacy as potential drivers of dividend smoothing.

Our study extends the existing literature by examining whether the stock market’s maturity and the sector in which a company operates affect the relationship between an improvement in its corporate reputation and its stock returns. This event-study research is based on data from developed and emerging stock markets: the NYSE (US) and the WSE (Poland). The improvement in corporate reputation is proxied by its inclusion in a reputational index. We analysed inclusions in the RESPECT Index and WIG-ESG in Poland from 2009 to 2023. Then we compared the effects of inclusions on stock prices in the Polish market and the US market, in which the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) was applied. Our findings suggest that in the emerging Polish market, significant reaction to inclusion in the index persists even when the sectoral circumstances are considered. Contrarily, in the developed US market, the strong positive effect of inclusion disappears in the sectoral context. Hence, significant returns may not be driven by the inclusion in a reputational index but rather result from other events that affect the particular sector.