Dividends, investment and cash flow uncertainty: Evidence from China

This paper investigates the relation between dividends and investment for Chinese listed firms in a condition of cash flow uncertainty. We find that facing cash flow uncertainty, Chinese firms neither cut dividends nor cut investment, but maintain extremely high level of investment. External financing is the only instrument that resolves cash flow uncertainty. We further find that there is an "N-shaped" nonlinear relation between dividends and investment given different levels of cash flow uncertainty. These results can be explained by China's special institutional settings in which firms have strong incentives to spend capital on both dividend payout and make investment.