SMEs and dividend payout policy in case of poor legal environment

This article investigates the dividend informational content hypothesis, showing how managers react to a poor legal environment through positive and credible messages to investors. We analyze private and public limited companies between 2015 and 2019, exploring the relation between their dividend payout policies and the courts’ ability to enforce creditor rights in case of insolvency. Based on our results, we can observe a positive relation between judicial delay and the SMEs’ decisions on dividend payouts, meaning that as the inefficiency of courts increases, small businesses are ever more likely to pay out dividends so that they can send a positive message to the local capital market. On the other hand, our results cannot confirm the same relation for public limited companies, which operate n the global capital market, highlighting the key role of local ties.