This dissertation examines four specific aspects of capital structure and dividend policy. The first issue concerns the determinants of capital structure dynamics. The primary objective is to examine whether stock returns are important factors in firm’s capital structure choice, and if so, whether this effect is persistent. In so doing, we use a data set which (1) avoids the complexity of tax rates faced by previous studies, (2) we introduce new variables that are unique to Oman, and (3) we distinguish empirically between bank debt and non-bank debt. We find stock returns are a first order determinant of capital structure. Firms do show some tendency to rebalance towards their target capital structure. However, the impact of stock returns dominates the effects of rebalancing. We also find new evidence that firms do take countermeasures to offset changes in their leverage that stem from equity value variations, but do so at a low speed. The next topic studied concerns the ex-dividend day behaviour. We investigate this issue using a unique data set where there are no taxes on dividends and capital gains and stock prices are decimalized. In this economy, any price decline that is smaller than the dividends can not be attributed to taxes and price discreteness. We find that the stock price drops by less than the amount of dividends and there is a significant positive ex-day return. We are able to account for our results using market microstructure models. The third issue investigated is the stock price reaction to dividend announcements. Tax-based signaling models argue that dividends would not have information and be informative if it is not for the higher taxes on dividends relative to capital gains that they apply to shareholders. The absence of personal taxes in Oman presents a valuable opportunity to test this prediction. Our results show that the announcements of dividend increases (decreases) are associated with a stock price increase (decrease) which contradicts the tax-based signaling models. The final chapter analyzes the determinants and stability of dividend policy of financial and non-financial firms. Investigating this issue is important for at least two reasons. First, Omani firms distribute almost 100% of their profits in dividends which led the Capital Market Authority (CMA) to issue a circular (number 12/2003) arguing that firms should retain some of their earnings for “rainy days”. This allows us understand the characteristics of firms that pay dividends. Second, firms are highly levered mainly through bank loans which render the role of dividends in reducing the agency costs less important. Unlike most previous studies, we include both dividend paying and non-dividend paying firms to avoid a selection bias. We find that there are some common factors that determine dividend policy of both financial and non-financial firms and there are some factors that affect only non-financial firms. We also find that the factors that influence the probability to pay dividends are the same factors that drive the amount of dividends paid for both financial and non-financial firms. We document that non-financial firms adopt a policy of smoothing dividends while financial firms do not have a stable dividend policy.

This dissertation examines four specific aspects of capital structure and dividend policy. The first issue concerns the determinants of capital structure dynamics. The primary objective is to examine whether stock returns are important factors in firm’s capital structure choice, and if so, whether t...