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Dividend Irrelevance Theory-Modigliani & Miller ( 1961 )

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Dividend Irrelevance Theory- Modigliani & Miller (1961)
Since the emergence of the so-called irrelevance theorem by Miller and Modigliani (1961), many corporations are puzzled about why some firms pay dividends while others do not. They were the first to study the effect of dividend policy on the market value of firms by assuming that there are no market imperfections. Miller and Modigliani (1961) proposed that divided policy chosen by a firm has no significant relationship in as far as the market valuation of the firm is concerned. They went further to explain that; the shareholders wealth remains unchanged irrespective of how the firm distributes it income because the firms’ value is rather determined by their investment policies and the earning power of its assets. They further stated that the opportunity to earn abnormal returns in the market does not exist, that is, owners are entitled to the normal market returns adjusted for risk.
In accordance to this, MM provided assumptions to support their findings. These assumptions can be characterized by the existence of a perfect capital market where;
• there is no taxes or transactional costs
• there is free accessibility to information about market
• no buyer or seller has significant influence on the ruling share prices
• investors are rational and risk averse, meaning they will always value securities with higher returns than securities with lower returns.
• managers act on behalf of shareholders’ and there is complete assurance about the investment policies and future cashflows of every corporation.
It is also important to note that these assumptions are untenable in the real world and if violated may lead to the relevance of dividend policy not because dividends are preferred.
The Miller and Modigliani (1961) study was often used as a starting with Black and Scholes (1974); Merton and Rock (1995) and Bernstein (1996) who supported their findings. However, in later research, several studies disapproved of their findings (Walter,1963; Litzenberger and Ramaswamy, 1982; Fama and French, 2002 and Kajola et al., 2015).

Bird in the Hand Theory- Lintner (1962) and Gordon (1963)
This hypothesis posited that an increase in dividend pay-out decisions has a

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