RDP 9211: Dividends and Taxation: A Preliminary Investigation Appendix 2: Data Sources

Individual company data are taken from the STATEX database provided by the Australian Stock Exchange. Fifty-five companies were selected based on the following criteria: (i) the companies are in the top 100 companies by market capitalisation, (ii) the companies are non-financial entities and (iii) data from 1980/81 to 1990/91 is available. The cash flow measure is real cash flow per share after adjustment of revenue and cost items associated with options, partly paid shares and convertible securities and after adjustment for intervening pro-rata issues to existing shareholders. The dividend measure is real dividends per share adjusted for bonus and rights issues. The private consumption deflator from the Australian National Accounts (Australian Bureau of Statistics, Catalogue No. 5206.0, Table 11) is used as the price deflator.

The tax discrimination variable is calculated using tax rate data from Australian Economic Statistics (Occasional Paper No. 8, Table 2.23) published by the Reserve Bank of Australia, “Report of the Commissioner of Taxation”, Commissioner of Taxation and “Budget Statements”, Australian Government Publishing Service. Weights are calculated from data supplied by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Long-run dividend payout ratios are calculated using data from the Australian National Accounts (Australian Bureau of Statistics, Catalogue No. 5206.0, Tables 52 and 57). Stock Exchange dividend payout ratios are calculated using earnings yield and dividend yield data from the Monthly Index Analysis published by the Australian Stock Exchange.