Board gender diversity, state ownership and dividend payout policy: empirical evidence from firms listed on the Ho Chi Minh stock exchange Hose in the period 2012 - 2022

Abstract

Dividend payout policy is considered as an important management tool to run a firm. In this study, we examined the impact of board gender diversity and the State ownership ratio on the dividend policy of the firm. This issue has been carefully studied in previous literature but mostly focused on developed markets such as Korea or Spain… or large emerging markets such as China. Therefore, our study will focus on analyzing the impact in Vietnam - a frontier market that is trying to upgrade to a typical emerging market. Our study uses data from 2012-2022 of 78 State ownership firms listed on the HOSE stock exchange to analyze the impact of gender diversity in the board of directors and the State ownership ratio on the dividend policy. We find that the presence of women in the board of directors increases the dividend policy of the firm as women have different and distinctive characteristics such as being more empathetic and risk-averse in financial decisions than men. In addition, the State ownership ratio in the shareholder structure of the firm is also carefully studied by us. Firms with State shareholders owning a higher ratio tend to pay higher dividends than firms with the State only playing the role of a small shareholder. Our study contributes to help firms to plan dividend payout policy that suits the needs of the firm as well as the practical conditions