183 /304
183
臺大管理論叢
第
28
卷第
1
期
3.3 Descriptive Statistics and Correlations
Table 1 presents the country-level summary statistics, with Panel A reporting the
statistics on the dividend payout ratios and control variables.
5
The statistics on the
dividend payout ratios show Hong Kong to have the highest dividends/sales, dividends/
operating cash flows, and dividends/market value of equity ratios. South Korea has the
lowest level of dividends/sales and dividends/operating cash flow, the Philippines the
lowest level of dividend/earnings, and Japan the lowest level of dividends/market value of
equity.
In terms of the mean dividend ratios, that of dividends/sales is 2.93 and ranges from
0.65% for South Korea to 7.24% for Hong Kong. The mean dividends/operating cash flow
ratio is 18.88% and ranges from 7.85% for South Korea to 39.82% for Hong Kong. The
mean dividends/market value of equity ratio is 2.46% and ranges from 0.93% for Japan to
4.79% for Hong Kong. The mean dividends/earnings ratio is 37.07% and ranges from
15.32% for the Philippines to 52.64% for Germany. The cross-country dividend payouts
vary significantly regardless of the measure of dividend payout ratio that is used.
In terms of the ultimate owner’s cash flow rights (
Own
), Panel B of Table 2 reports
that the mean for the full sample is 27.68% and ranges from 7.05% for Japan to 45.74%
for Austria. The mean divergence between cash flow rights and voting rights (
Diverge
) is
19% and ranges from 6% for Thailand and France to 37% for Japan. The average
percentage of observations with a positive cash flow-control divergence is high at 41.1%.
Panel B of Table 1 reports the statistics on legal institutions by country. There are six
common-law countries (
Legal
= 1): Hong Kong, Ireland, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand,
and the United Kingdom. The remaining sample countries are civil-law countries. The
mean index of anti-directors rights (
Right
) is 2.91 and ranges from 0 for Belgium to 5 for
Hong Kong and the United Kingdom. The average rating of accounting disclosure
standards (
Disclosure
) is 66.6, with the lowest value of 36 for Portugal and the highest
value of 83 for Sweden.
5 Appendix A summarizes the definitions, measurements, and sources of the data that are used in the
study.