Anas Al Qudah, Ahmed Badawi

(American University of the Middle East, Kuwait)

 

 

Abstract: The objective of this study is to see how the signaling hypothesis manifests itself in a small market, such as KSA, characterized by concentrated family-ownerships, non-taxability of dividends, and high degree of information asymmetry. In this context, we hypothesize that there is a positive relationship between dividend announcement and stock prices in the Saudi market. This study tests this hypothesis using all publically traded firms listed on the Saudi Exchange Market (Tadawul). We use event study to test stock market responses to dividend announcements. To test the signaling hypothesis we used our cross section data to calculate accumulated average abnormal returns using 100 days as estimation period and 21 days as window period. We used parametric CAAR (t test) and nonparametric (G sign) significance tests to verify that our results are significant and not due to pure chance. Our results show no significant reaction of prices to the dividend announcements, which means that signaling hypothesis cannot be generalized to all types of markets and that each market own characteristics have significant effect on the applicability of the signaling hypothesis. Further research is suggested to include earnings in the analysis.

 

 

Key words: signaling hypothesis; dividend policy; event study; Saudi stock market

 

JEL codes: G2, G3