Theories of corporate payout policy do not explain the observed form of distributions to shareholders. Although open-market repurchases appear to have tax advantages, cash dividends are overwhelmingly chosen. We argue that there are costs associated with open-market-repurchase programs, since they provide managers with opportunities to use inside information to benefit themselves at stockholders' expense. We offer evidence suggesting that bid-ask spreads widen around repurchase announcements, as predicted by our analysis. Since these costs of repurchases do not arise with cash dividends, our analysis implies that repurchases do not dominate cash dividends for making distributions to shareholders.

This paper examines the intraday market response to announcements of new equity issues. For fifteen minutes following the announcement, there is abnormally high volume and a -1.3% average return. There is also a small, but significant, negative average return in the hour before the announcement. Issue size, intended use of proceeds, and estimated profitability of new investment are uncorrelated with the announcement effect. After the issuance of new shares, there is a significant price recovery of 1.5%. This evidence is inconsistent with many theoretical rationales for the negative market reaction to new equity issue announcements.