Presenter: Anil Kumar, AU

Title: Corporate Payout under Uncertainty: The Role of Intangible Capital

Abstract: This paper studies how uncertainty affects corporate payout policy through the composition of intangible capital. Using panel data on U.S. public firms, we find that economic policy uncertainty increases dividend payout more strongly for firms with higher intangible intensity, with the effect driven mainly by internal rather than external intangible capital. We further show that uncertainty lowers payout flexibility by reducing the share of repurchases in total payout and increases net long-term debt issuance for intangible-intensive firms, consistent with a shift toward more commitment-based payout. These results remain qualitatively similar when uncertainty is measured using financial uncertainty shocks and in instrumental-variables specifications.

Organizers: Stefan Hirth and Mads Markvart Kjær