Dividend suspensions and cash flows during the Covid-19 pandemic: A dynamic econometric model.

Firms suspended dividend payments in unprecedented numbers in response to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. We develop a multivariate dynamic econometric model that allows dividend suspensions to affect the conditional mean, volatility, and jump probability of growth in daily industry-level dividends and demonstrate how the parameters of this model can be estimated using Bayesian Gibbs sampling methods. We find considerable heterogeneity across industries in the dynamics of daily dividend growth and the impact of dividend suspensions.

Payout suspensions during the Covid-19 pandemic.

We provide evidence on the unprecedented rate at which firms suspended dividend payments and share repurchases following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, compare it to the Global Financial Crisis, and estimate the amount of cash firms saved through payout suspensions.