This article investigates market reactions to initiations and omissions of cash dividend payments. Consistent with prior literature, the authors find that the magnitude of short-run price reactions to omissions are greater than for initiations. In the year following the announcements, prices continue to drift in the same direction, though the drift following omissions is stronger and more robust. This postdividend initiation/omission price drift is distinct from and more pronounced than that following earnings surprises. A trading rule employing both samples earns positive returns in twenty-two out of twenty-five years. The authors find little evidence for clientele shifts in either sample.

Preface xi Richard H. Thaler Acknowledgments xix List of Abbreviations xxiii Chapter 1: A Survey of Behavioral Finance by Nicholas Barberis and Richard H. Thaler 1 Part I: Limits to Arbitrage Chapter 2: The Limits of Arbitrage by Andrei Shleifer and Robert W. Vishny 79 Chapter 3: How Are Stock Prices Affected by the Location of Trade? by Kenneth A. Froot and Emil M. Dabora 102 Chapter 4: Can the Market Add and Subtract? Mispricing in Tech Stock Carve-outs by Owen A. Lamont and Richard H. Thaler 130 Part II: I Stock Returns and the Equity Premium Chapter 5: Valuation Ratios and the Long-run Stock Market Outlook: An Update by John Y. Campbell and Robert J. Shiller 173 Chapter 6: Myopic Loss Aversion and the Equity Premium Puzzle by Shlomo Benartzi and Richard H. Thaler 202 Chapter 7: Prospect Theory and Asset Prices by Nicholas Barberis, Ming Huang, and Tano Santos 224 Part III: Empirical Studies of Overreaction and Underreaction Chapter 8: Contrarian Investment, Extrapolation, and Risk by Josef Lakonishok, Andrei Shleifer, and Robert W. Vishny 273 Chapter 9: Evidence on the Characteristics of Cross-sectional Variation in Stock Returns by Kent Daniel and Sheridan Titman 317 Chapter 10: Momentum by Narasimhan Jegadeesh and Sheridan Titman 353 Chapter 11: Market Efficiency and Biases in Brokerage Recommendations by Roni Michaely and Kent L. Womack 389 Part IV: Theories of Overreaction and Underreaction Chapter 12: A Model of Investor Sentiment by Nicholas Barberis, Andrei Shleifer, and Robert W. Vishny 423 Chapter 13: Investor Psychology and Security Market Under- and Overreaction by Kent Daniel, David Hirshleifer, and Avanidhar Subrahmanyam 460 Chapter 14: A Unified Theory of Underreaction, Momentum Trading, and Overreaction in Asset Markets by Harrison Hong and Jeremy C. Stein 502 Part V: Investor Behavior Chapter 15: Individual Investors by Brad M. Barber and Terrance Odean 543 Chapter 16: Naive Diversification Strategies in Defined Contribution Savings Plans by Shlomo Benartzi and Richard H. Thaler 570 Part VI: Corporate Finance Chapter 17: Rational Capital Budgeting in an Irrational World by Jeremy C. Stein 605 Chapter 18: Earnings Management to Exceed Thresholds by Francois Degeorge, Jayendu Patel, and Richard Zeckhauser 633 Chapter 19: Managerial Optimism and Corporate Finance by J. B. Heaton 667 List of Contributors 685 Index 695

This article investigates market reactions to initiations and omissions of cash dividend payments. Consistent with prior literature we find that the magnitude of short-run price reactions to omissions are greater than for initiations. In the year following the announcements, prices continue to drift in the same direction, though the drift following omissions is stronger and more robust. This post-dividend initiation/omission price drift is distinct from and more pronounced than that following earnings surprises. A trading rule employing both samples earns positive returns in 22 out of 25 years. We find little evidence for clientele shifts in either sample.

This article investigates market reactions to initiations and omissions of cash dividend payments. Consistent with prior literature we find that the magnitude of short‐run price reactions to omissions are greater than for initiations. In the year following the announcements, prices continue to drift in the same direction, though the drift following omissions is stronger and more robust. This post‐dividend initiation/omission price drift is distinct from and more pronounced than that following earnings surprises. A trading rule employing both samples earns positive returns in 22 out of 25 years. We find little evidence for clientele shifts in either sample.