1. No category

Internet Appendix to “Payout policy through the financial crisis:
The growth of repurchases and the resilience of dividends”
Table IA. 1: Fraction of US financial firms in different payer groups, 1980-2012
Table reports the fraction of US public firms that make dividend payments and net repurchases by year, divided into the
following groups: (1) firms that only pay dividends, (2) firms that pay dividends and repurchase, (3) firms that only
repurchase, (4) firms that neither pay dividends nor repurchase (non-payers), (5) all firms that pay dividends (6) all firms
that repurchase. Table reports on financial firms (SIC codes 6000-6999). Data are from Compustat. Dividend payers
have non-zero dividends (Compustat #21) while firms that repurchase have non-zero repurchases. We measure net
repurchases as the increase in common treasury stock (Compustat #226) if the firm uses the treasury stock method. If
the firm uses the “retirement” method instead (which we infer from the fact that the treasury stock is zero in the current
and prior year), we measure repurchases as the difference between stock purchases (#115) and stock issuances (#118)
from the statement of cash flows. If either of these amounts (the change in treasury stock or the difference between
#115 and #118) is negative or missing, repurchases are set to zero. We drop firms with missing dividends (Compustat
#21) or income before extraordinary items (Compustat #18) for the year in question. The fraction is calculated as the
number of firms in each group divided by the total number of Compustat firms for the corresponding year.
Year
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
Average/
Total
Firms that
only pay
dividends
Firms that
pay
dividends
and
repurchase
Firms
that only
repurchase
Non-payers
All dividend
payers
All
repurchase
firms
Total
firms
72.0%
66.0%
61.7%
51.1%
45.9%
47.1%
47.4%
41.2%
45.5%
45.4%
39.7%
44.7%
43.8%
55.5%
48.0%
48.5%
46.8%
46.7%
44.8%
39.1%
34.0%
37.3%
38.6%
43.7%
46.3%
44.0%
43.9%
34.2%
43.8%
46.6%
44.7%
40.8%
44.3%
0.0%
0.2%
2.4%
12.9%
14.8%
12.6%
12.5%
19.6%
18.4%
19.5%
24.5%
15.1%
14.5%
8.3%
18.7%
20.1%
23.0%
22.9%
24.2%
29.0%
33.3%
28.9%
28.2%
24.6%
23.6%
27.1%
28.2%
37.9%
26.4%
16.3%
15.3%
20.3%
20.5%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
4.7%
6.2%
7.5%
6.1%
9.7%
9.9%
10.1%
8.9%
8.5%
8.9%
3.1%
6.1%
5.1%
6.1%
5.9%
7.1%
7.3%
9.2%
9.3%
8.4%
6.8%
6.1%
5.5%
6.2%
8.3%
9.6%
10.0%
10.5%
10.7%
9.6%
28.0%
33.9%
35.9%
31.2%
33.1%
32.8%
33.9%
29.5%
26.2%
25.0%
26.9%
31.7%
32.8%
33.2%
27.2%
26.3%
24.1%
24.5%
23.8%
24.7%
23.5%
24.6%
24.9%
24.9%
23.9%
23.5%
21.8%
19.6%
20.1%
27.1%
29.4%
28.2%
25.6%
72.0%
66.1%
64.1%
64.0%
60.7%
59.6%
60.0%
60.8%
63.9%
64.9%
64.2%
59.9%
58.3%
63.7%
66.7%
68.6%
69.8%
69.6%
69.1%
68.0%
67.3%
66.2%
66.8%
68.3%
69.9%
71.0%
72.1%
72.1%
70.3%
62.9%
60.0%
61.1%
64.8%
0.0%
0.2%
2.4%
17.7%
20.9%
20.1%
18.7%
29.3%
28.3%
29.6%
33.4%
23.6%
23.4%
11.3%
24.7%
25.2%
29.1%
28.8%
31.3%
36.2%
42.5%
38.2%
36.6%
31.4%
29.7%
32.5%
34.3%
46.2%
36.1%
26.4%
25.9%
31.0%
30.1%
599
664
674
695
697
716
797
847
826
804
785
812
833
1,503
1,601
1,622
1,613
1,537
1,564
1,658
1,581
1,519
1,480
1,449
1,416
1,401
1,360
1,305
1,248
1,218
1,226
1,217
1,195
45.0%
21.3%
7.2%
26.5%
66.3%
28.5%
38,462
Table IA. 2: Aggregate dividends and repurchases and share of aggregate payouts by payer group,
US financial firms, 1980-2012 (constant 2012 $ millions)
Table reports, first, share of aggregate payouts for firms in various payer groups and, second, aggregate dividends
(Compustat #21) and repurchases (as defined in Table 1), from 1980 to 2012 for US public firms. Table reports on
financial firms (SIC codes 6000-6999). We drop firms with missing dividends (Compustat #21) or income before
extraordinary items (Compustat #18) for the year in question. Real dividends and repurchases are given in millions of
dollars, converted to 2012 dollars using the consumer price index. We calculate total payouts as dividends plus
repurchases. The fraction is calculated as the total payouts for each group divided by the total payouts for all firms. We
report the fraction of total payouts for: (1) firms that only pay dividends, (2) firms that pay dividends and repurchase,
and (3) firms that only repurchase, as well as the overall aggregate of payouts for the year.
Year
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
Percent share of aggregate payouts by
firm payer-type
Real (2012) dollar
magnitude of payouts
Firms that
only pay
dividends
Firms that
pay
dividends
and
repurchase
Firms that
only
repurchase
Dividends
100.0%
99.7%
94.1%
57.4%
61.9%
68.1%
54.5%
29.7%
49.2%
51.8%
46.3%
61.2%
61.8%
58.1%
31.8%
40.0%
36.7%
33.3%
39.8%
27.0%
36.6%
31.9%
35.3%
55.1%
32.9%
20.2%
22.9%
24.2%
59.4%
58.0%
42.8%
31.9%
33.7%
0.0%
0.3%
5.9%
42.2%
32.7%
29.6%
44.1%
68.7%
50.0%
47.6%
53.2%
38.7%
37.8%
40.7%
67.5%
59.2%
62.0%
66.2%
58.3%
70.6%
61.4%
65.4%
61.6%
42.6%
65.4%
78.2%
72.1%
69.7%
34.8%
33.1%
43.5%
62.0%
54.1%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.4%
5.4%
2.4%
1.4%
1.7%
0.9%
0.6%
0.4%
0.2%
0.4%
1.2%
0.7%
0.8%
1.2%
0.5%
1.9%
2.4%
2.0%
2.7%
3.1%
2.2%
1.7%
1.6%
5.0%
6.1%
5.8%
8.9%
13.6%
6.2%
12.3%
15,113
15,087
15,872
16,291
16,988
19,541
20,387
22,475
23,683
24,915
25,227
22,560
23,870
29,494
34,943
40,067
49,501
52,211
60,903
64,952
66,776
65,841
75,273
79,521
89,797
101,925
114,168
121,672
88,905
40,568
49,365
59,864
71,023
Repurch.
0
25
160
1,762
2,990
2,201
5,500
12,846
6,374
7,562
7,261
2,723
3,307
5,068
16,799
17,199
26,997
37,695
31,954
50,854
35,695
36,950
34,185
24,516
48,848
77,768
101,218
116,319
33,448
15,476
36,089
55,307
56,725
Aggregate
Payout
Dollars
15,113
15,112
16,032
18,053
19,978
21,741
25,887
35,321
30,057
32,476
32,487
25,283
27,177
34,562
51,742
57,266
76,498
89,906
92,857
115,805
102,471
102,791
109,458
104,037
138,645
179,694
215,386
237,991
122,354
56,045
85,453
115,171
127,748
Table IA. 3: Frequency and magnitude of dividends-per-share (DPS) changes for financial firms, 1981-2012
Table reports changes in annual split-adjusted dividends-per-share (DPS), per Compustat (#26/#27), for firms that pay
dividends in each year (as well as the prior year, to compute changes). We report the number (fraction) of firms for
which DPS increases, does not change, and decreases, as well as the mean and median nominal change in dollars. Table
reports on financial firms (SIC codes 6000-6999). We drop firms with missing dividends (Compustat #21) or income
before extraordinary items (Compustat #18) for the year in question.
Increase in DPS observations:
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
No change
observations:
Decrease in DPS observations:
Number
of
increases
Percentage
Mean
Increase
Median
Increase
Number
of no
change
Percentage
Number of
decreases
Percentage
Mean
decrease
Median
decrease
305
297
295
311
276
284
342
340
325
303
262
290
366
780
826
886
813
813
761
750
692
702
739
715
716
713
654
458
214
248
381
467
54.1%
47.8%
48.8%
49.1%
43.8%
44.0%
46.8%
45.3%
43.6%
41.1%
36.0%
38.1%
47.8%
56.3%
56.7%
59.9%
57.3%
59.3%
54.5%
50.1%
48.7%
49.8%
54.1%
54.6%
55.3%
56.0%
52.9%
38.4%
18.4%
22.0%
32.7%
41.5%
0.12
0.13
0.15
0.13
0.16
0.16
0.21
0.16
0.18
0.14
0.17
0.15
0.16
0.18
0.15
0.16
0.15
0.12
0.14
0.14
0.14
0.13
0.18
0.21
0.20
0.19
0.20
0.18
0.13
0.31
0.17
0.26
0.05
0.05
0.05
0.04
0.05
0.06
0.06
0.05
0.05
0.05
0.04
0.05
0.06
0.06
0.06
0.06
0.06
0.06
0.06
0.05
0.05
0.05
0.06
0.06
0.07
0.07
0.06
0.06
0.04
0.06
0.07
0.10
209
265
267
270
309
292
306
327
318
306
321
354
329
522
513
522
516
465
528
625
607
605
541
512
484
479
490
480
481
586
645
544
37.1%
42.7%
44.2%
42.6%
49.0%
45.3%
41.9%
43.5%
42.7%
41.5%
44.1%
46.5%
43.0%
37.7%
35.2%
35.3%
36.4%
33.9%
37.8%
41.8%
42.7%
42.9%
39.6%
39.1%
37.4%
37.6%
39.6%
40.2%
41.4%
51.9%
55.4%
48.3%
50
59
42
53
45
69
82
84
102
129
145
118
70
83
117
71
89
92
107
121
122
102
85
82
94
82
92
255
467
295
138
115
8.9%
9.5%
7.0%
8.4%
7.1%
10.7%
11.2%
11.2%
13.7%
17.5%
19.9%
15.5%
9.2%
6.0%
8.0%
4.8%
6.3%
6.7%
7.7%
8.1%
8.6%
7.2%
6.2%
6.3%
7.3%
6.4%
7.4%
21.4%
40.2%
26.1%
11.9%
10.2%
-0.31
-0.45
-0.36
-0.41
-0.34
-0.61
-0.47
-0.51
-0.46
-0.45
-0.53
-0.38
-0.41
-0.30
-0.38
-0.31
-0.45
-0.61
-0.40
-0.49
-0.39
-0.48
-0.31
-0.33
-0.39
-0.44
-0.51
-0.51
-0.62
-0.25
-0.35
-0.23
-0.13
-0.17
-0.13
-0.23
-0.17
-0.46
-0.38
-0.20
-0.22
-0.30
-0.30
-0.22
-0.21
-0.13
-0.16
-0.18
-0.14
-0.23
-0.22
-0.16
-0.19
-0.25
-0.18
-0.15
-0.15
-0.21
-0.30
-0.24
-0.38
-0.16
-0.16
-0.13
Table IA. 4. Median dividend and total payout ratios for different payer groups in financial firms, 1980-2012
Table reports median dividend and total payout ratios for firms that pay dividends and/or repurchase (as defined in
Table 1). Table reports on financial firms (SIC codes 6000-6999). We drop firms with missing dividends (Compustat
#21) or income before extraordinary items (Compustat #18) for the year in question. Total payout ratio is dividends
plus repurchases divided by income before extraordinary items. Dividend payout ratio is common dividends divided by
income before extraordinary items. The ratios are set to missing if income before extraordinary items is negative.
Column 1 reports median dividend payout ratios for firms that only pay dividends; column 2 reports dividend payout
ratios for firms that pay dividends and repurchase; column 3 reports total payout ratios for firms that pay dividends and
repurchase; column 4 reports total payout ratios for firms that only repurchase.
Year
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
Dividend payout
ratio for firms that
only pay dividends
(1)
Dividend payout ratio for firms that
pay dividends and repurchase
(2)
Total payout ratio of
firms that pay dividends
and repurchase
(3)
Total payout ratio of
firms that only
repurchase
(4)
0.324
0.343
0.367
0.367
0.363
0.368
0.338
0.506
0.384
0.417
0.548
0.429
0.361
0.282
0.323
0.333
0.381
0.381
0.399
0.403
0.417
0.422
0.397
0.378
0.423
0.402
0.426
0.611
0.814
0.673
0.529
0.467
0.505
.
.
0.345
0.309
0.300
0.329
0.322
0.358
0.313
0.322
0.366
0.349
0.344
0.298
0.300
0.307
0.332
0.303
0.328
0.362
0.371
0.366
0.331
0.377
0.368
0.389
0.403
0.438
0.508
0.444
0.415
0.335
0.372
.
.
0.403
0.426
0.433
0.414
0.414
0.606
0.585
0.513
0.582
0.471
0.493
0.423
0.505
0.582
0.679
0.615
0.648
0.844
0.803
0.753
0.635
0.621
0.650
0.705
0.749
0.959
1.001
0.752
0.659
0.705
0.745
.
.
.
0.038
0.277
0.225
0.264
0.270
0.166
0.357
0.187
0.040
0.067
0.147
0.140
0.514
0.219
0.248
0.420
0.388
0.404
0.288
0.278
0.199
0.398
0.365
0.696
0.546
0.589
0.285
0.459
0.386
0.263
Table IA. 5: The relation between dividends and losses for financial firms
Table reports the fraction of firms in a given year that report accounting losses (negative after-tax bottom-line earnings,
defined as Compustat #18 + #48), the fraction of firms that pay dividends (non-zero value for Compustat #21), the
fraction of firms in the intersection of these groups, and the fraction of loss firms that pay dividends (calculated as the
number of dividend payers reporting losses divided by the number of loss firms). Table reports on financial firms (SIC
codes 6000-6999). We drop firms with missing dividends (Compustat #21) or income before extraordinary items
(Compustat #18) for the year in question.
Year
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
All firms
Loss firms
Dividend payers
Dividend payers
reporting losses
Loss firms that
pay dividends
599
664
674
695
697
716
797
847
826
804
785
812
833
1,503
1,601
1,622
1,613
1,537
1,564
1,658
1,581
1,519
1,480
1,449
1,416
1,401
1,360
1,305
1,248
1,218
1,226
1,217
1,195
10.70%
16.40%
21.70%
19.40%
20.80%
21.40%
20.70%
23.70%
24.60%
27.50%
31.50%
28.90%
25.70%
15.30%
12.90%
11.80%
13.30%
11.30%
16.00%
15.60%
18.30%
19.60%
17.90%
14.00%
12.90%
11.90%
11.00%
18.50%
38.70%
40.20%
29.60%
23.40%
18.20%
72.00%
66.10%
64.10%
64.00%
60.70%
59.60%
60.00%
60.80%
63.90%
64.90%
64.20%
59.90%
58.30%
63.70%
66.70%
68.60%
69.80%
69.60%
69.10%
68.00%
67.30%
66.20%
66.80%
68.30%
69.90%
71.00%
72.10%
72.10%
70.30%
62.90%
60.00%
61.10%
64.80%
1.80%
3.90%
4.20%
3.30%
3.30%
2.50%
4.10%
5.90%
6.30%
8.60%
12.40%
7.80%
7.10%
3.70%
2.30%
2.20%
3.20%
1.60%
3.30%
2.50%
3.00%
3.50%
2.80%
2.60%
2.80%
3.10%
2.60%
8.30%
21.80%
18.10%
8.90%
7.70%
5.20%
16.82%
23.78%
19.35%
17.01%
15.87%
11.68%
19.81%
24.89%
25.61%
31.27%
39.37%
26.99%
27.63%
24.18%
17.83%
18.64%
24.06%
14.16%
20.63%
16.03%
16.39%
17.86%
15.64%
18.57%
21.71%
26.05%
23.64%
44.86%
56.33%
45.02%
30.07%
32.91%
28.57%
Table IA. 6: Aggregate earnings for financial firms in different payer groups, 1980-2012 (constant 2012 $
millions)
Table reports the fraction of aggregate real earnings (Compustat #18) as well as aggregate real earnings for firms in
different payer groups from 1980 to 2012. Table reports on financial firms (SIC codes 6000-6999).We drop firms with
missing dividends (Compustat #21) or income before extraordinary items (Compustat #18). Earnings in millions of
dollars, converted to 2012 dollars using the consumer price index. The fraction is calculated as total earnings for firms
in each payer group divided by total earnings for all firms. We report these numbers for the following mutuallyexclusive sets of firms: (1) firms that only pay dividends, (2) firms that pay dividends and repurchase, (3) firms that only
repurchase, (4) non-payers, as well as overall aggregate earnings for the year. The final column reports earnings numbers
when loss observations are included. These numbers are not used for calculating the fractions in each column.
Year
Earnings for
firms that only
pay dividends
Earnings for
firms that pay
dividends and
make
repurchases
Earnings for
firms that only
repurchase
Earnings for
non-payers
Aggregate
earnings
excluding losses
Aggregate
earnings
including losses
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
97.8%
97.3%
92.5%
61.2%
65.7%
70.2%
63.6%
38.0%
58.5%
59.9%
41.3%
62.2%
57.8%
57.0%
35.4%
45.5%
40.2%
44.0%
46.5%
38.5%
43.6%
44.0%
34.8%
58.5%
39.0%
32.2%
29.5%
22.6%
54.4%
68.9%
45.4%
39.3%
39.0%
0.0%
0.0%
4.7%
33.8%
29.1%
23.6%
31.7%
55.8%
36.6%
36.1%
54.2%
33.3%
36.7%
34.6%
59.4%
49.6%
55.1%
51.8%
50.0%
58.0%
52.0%
51.2%
59.7%
36.1%
56.3%
63.1%
65.1%
71.1%
34.2%
19.1%
37.4%
46.6%
40.3%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.4%
1.6%
1.5%
0.4%
3.0%
2.3%
0.7%
2.0%
0.5%
0.5%
3.3%
0.8%
0.5%
1.1%
1.2%
1.4%
1.3%
2.6%
1.6%
2.6%
1.9%
1.7%
1.4%
3.0%
4.5%
9.2%
7.1%
6.7%
11.7%
5.7%
2.2%
2.7%
2.7%
4.6%
3.7%
4.7%
4.3%
3.2%
2.6%
3.3%
2.5%
4.0%
5.0%
5.1%
4.4%
4.4%
3.6%
3.0%
2.1%
2.2%
1.8%
3.3%
2.8%
3.5%
3.1%
3.3%
2.4%
1.8%
2.2%
4.9%
10.6%
2.5%
15.0%
47,150
44,319
42,151
45,224
45,250
51,273
65,119
52,813
75,011
62,775
54,623
59,710
72,376
107,565
111,241
127,816
143,551
164,046
171,133
201,818
198,513
166,866
202,439
248,532
247,642
271,237
313,726
231,152
89,672
140,104
177,607
203,761
233,698
46,331
42,208
38,012
39,887
38,138
44,505
58,285
26,546
63,454
38,556
37,062
46,459
65,203
101,953
106,421
123,164
140,910
161,256
163,797
194,554
180,101
144,881
183,508
240,697
244,347
267,860
311,031
172,082
-281,099
-26,571
121,994
166,819
224,687