#07-09
Corporate Governance and Dividend Policy in Poland
Oskar Kowalewski, Ivan Stetsyuk, and Oleksandr Talavera, April 2007
Abstract: The goal of this paper is twofold. First, we explore the determinants of the dividend policy in
Poland. Second, we test whether corporate governance practices determine the dividend policy in
the non-financial companies listed on Warsaw Stock Exchange. We compose, for the first time,
quantitative measures on the quality of the corporate governance for 110 non-financial listed
companies. Our results suggest that large and more profitable companies have a higher dividend
payout ratio. Furthermore, riskier and more indebted firms prefer to pay lower dividends. The
findings finally, based on the period 1998-2004, demonstrate that an increase in the TDI or its
subindices that represent corporate governance practices brings about a statistically significant
increase in the dividend-to-cash-flow ratio. Moreover, the estimates prove to be significant after the
inclusion of standard additional controls.
Keywords: G30, G32, G35.
JEL classifications: Corporate governance, dividend policy
