Corporate Governance and Dividend Policy : An Empirical Analysis From Borsa Istanbul Corporate Governance Index (XKURY)

Abstract

The aim of this research is to analyze the potential relationship between corporate governance and dividend policy. To conduct this research, a sample of 19 corporations from the Borsa Istanbul (BIST) Corporate Governance Index (XKURY), which is composed of listed companies who accomplished a certain level of Corporate Governance Principles over the period of 2007-2014, were selected. OLS (Ordinary Least Squares) panel regression analysis has been performed. The potential relationship between ownership structure and dividend policy has also been analyzed by utilizing the independent variables of ownership concentration, managerial ownership and total foreign ownership. In addition to our independent variables, we also included return on equity (ROE) and firm size to our research in order to increase the explanatory power of our model. This study finds an insignificant relationship between corporate governance and dividend policy. On the other hand, we obtained significant positive relationship between total foreign ownership and dividend policy and significant negative relationships between ownership concentration and dividend policy and managerial ownership and dividend policy. Finally, we obtained significant negative association between return on equity (ROE) and dividend policy and significant positive association between firm size and dividend policy.