Does Corruption Matter For Corporate Payouts In The Covid Era? Evidence From Muslim Countries

Deskripsi

This article investigates how corruption and the COVID-19 pandemic affect corporate payout decisions. The sample contains 13,865 firm-years over the period 2012-2020 and 1,950 firms from 18 Muslim countries. Results show that neither corruption nor the pandemic influence dividends and repurchases. However, corruption when interacted with the pandemic negatively and significantly influences dividends. In other words, firms in highly corrupt Muslim countries had higher dividends during the pandemic–the picture changes in the COVID era. This research is the first study assessing the impact of COVID-19 on corporate payouts in Muslim countries by employing a robust bias-corrected and unbiased estimator (fractional dependent variable–DPF).