Institutional Determinants of Companies’ Dividend Policy in Countries with Emerging Economies on the Example of BRICS

Dividend payout policy is one of the most controversial in the literature on financial management. The authors of empirical studies of dividend policy factors in emerging markets traditionally use the fundamental and financial indicators of companies in their work. Institutional determinants of dividend policy have been less studied, and their impact on dividend payments remains relevant. The purpose of this final qualifying work is to study the institutional determinants of dividend policy in emerging markets on the example of the BRICS countries. The first section reveals the main traditional and behavioral theories of dividend policy. Empirical studies of dividend policy factors in emerging markets are also analyzed. The second section is devoted to the econometric analysis of the determinants of dividend policy of companies in emerging markets. The study is based on fundamental and non-fundamental indicators of BRICS companies using databases obtained using the Bloomberg terminal. In the third section we analyze the institutional determinants of dividend policy. This section is devoted to the study of the legislative requirements for the dividend policy of state owned companies, as well as the taxation of dividends. The results of the regression analysis of the dividend policy factors of the BRICS countries confirmed the conclusions of the existing empirical studies on this topic, and the majority of the hypotheses put forward were confirmed. For the countries under consideration, both General trends and unique cases have been identified. Based on the results of the in-depth regression analysis (taking into account institutional constraints), it was found that only Indian companies with a dividend payout ratio that exceeds the mandatory standard have a statistically significant factor in the dividend policy is the share of state participation.