Currency flotation and dividend policies: Evidence from China's central parity reform

Abstract

Exploiting the 2015 central parity reform in China, we examine whether and how currency flotation affects corporate payout policies. The reform shifted China's currency regime from a crawling peg to the US dollar to partial flotation, significantly increasing its currency risk. We find that firms with high foreign currency exposures reduced their cash dividends postreform relative to firms with low foreign currency exposures. The dividend reduction is more pronounced for firms with less financial hedging or less financial flexibility before the reform. Firms display asymmetrical responses to foreign exchange gains versus losses. Specifically, while firms cut cash dividends when experiencing foreign exchange losses, they do not increase cash dividends when obtaining foreign exchange gains. A falsification test shows no changes in firms’ stock dividends that do not involve cash flows. Overall, our study shows that currency flotation, through increasing currency risks, dampens firms’ cash dividends.