The impact of a financial crisis on the dividend payout of Dutch publicly listed firms

As a result of the global financial crisis of 2007 many firms all around the world encountered serious liquidity problems, whereas others went bankrupt; a serious decrease in profitability was seen and investments dropped to zero. This paper examines whether these negative corollaries of the financial crisis had any consequence for the dividend payout of Dutch publicly listed firms. It does so by assessing the dividend payout ratios of 78 Dutch publicly listed firms during the pre-crisis, crisis, and post-crisis period (2006 – 2012).