This paper investigates the elements affecting dividend yield in developing Southeast Asian countries—more specifically, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore. Examined here are the roles of financial information including debt to equity ratio, free cashflows, property, plant, and equipment (PPE) and total sales with controlling factors of size, institutional ownership, and firm age using both short-run and long-run analytical frameworks including the Error Correction Model and Engle and Granger’s approach. The results reveal different trends in the three nations. Higher debt and free cashflows lower dividend yield in Thailand; institutional shareholders benefit from maintaining greater dividend payouts. Aging companies in Malaysia are more likely to pay more dividends while rising revenues are linked to smaller short-term payouts. Leveraged and asset-heavy companies are more likely to keep paying dividends in Singapore. These discoveries have important ramifications for investors and business management trying to maximize dividend policies and improve shareholder value in developing economies.

Agrawal, A., & Jayaraman, N. (1994). The dividend policies of all‐equity firms: A direct test of the free cash flow theory. Managerial and Decision Economics, 15(2), 139–148. Portico. https://doi.org/10.1002/mde.4090150206

Aivazian, V., Booth, L., & Cleary, S. (2003). Do Emerging Market Firms Follow Different Dividend Policies From U.S. Firms? Journal of Financial Research, 26(3), 371–387. Portico. https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6803.00064

Akindayomi, A., & Amin, M. R. (2022). Does business strategy affect dividend payout policies?. Journal of Business Research, 151, 531-550. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.07.028

Al-Hiyari, A., Kolsi, M. C., Lutfi, A., et al. (2024). Information asymmetry and dividend payout in an emerging market: Does corporate governance quality matter? Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity, 10(1), 100188. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joitmc.2023.100188

Anuar, A. Z. W., Haniff, M. N., & Azero, M. A. (2023). Determinants of Dividend Policy: Evidence from Malaysian Public Listed Companies. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 13(4). https://doi.org/10.6007/ijarbss/v13-i4/16602

Baker, H. K., De Ridder, A., & Råsbrant, J. (2020). Investors and dividend yields. The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, 76, 386–395. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.qref.2019.09.004

Brawn, D. A., & Šević, A. (2018). “Firm size matters: Industry sector, firm age and volatility do too in determining which publicly-listed US firms pay a dividend.” International Review of Financial Analysis, 58, 132–152. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.irfa.2018.05.002

Breusch, T. S., & Pagan, A. R. (1979). A Simple Test for Heteroscedasticity and Random Coefficient Variation. Econometrica, 47(5), 1287. https://doi.org/10.2307/1911963

Cao, L., Du, Y., & Hansen, J. Ø. (2017). Foreign institutional investors and dividend policy: Evidence from China. International Business Review, 26(5), 816–827. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ibusrev.2017.02.001

Cao, Y., Zhao, S., & Luo, X. (2022). The role of business strategies in shaping dividend policies: Evidence from global firms. Journal of Corporate Finance, 77, 102-113.

Chang, Y., & Park, J. Y. (2002). On the asymptotics of adf tests for unit roots. Econometric Reviews, 21(4), 431–447. https://doi.org/10.1081/etc-120015385

Charitou, A., & Vafeas, N. (1998). The Association Between Operating Cash Flows and Dividend Changes: An Empirical Investigation. Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, 25(1–2), 225–249. Portico. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-5957.00185

Deangelo, H., Deangelo, L., & Stulz, R. (2006). Dividend policy and the earned/contributed capital mix: a test of the life-cycle theory. Journal of Financial Economics, 81(2), 227–254. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfineco.2005.07.005

Denis, D. J., & Osobov, I. (2008). Why do firms pay dividends? International evidence on the determinants of dividend policy☆. Journal of Financial Economics, 89(1), 62–82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfineco.2007.06.006

Driscoll, J., & Kraay, A. (1998). Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimation with Spatially Dependent Panel Data. Review of Economics and Statistics, 80(4), 549–560. https://doi.org/10.1162/003465398557825

Farooq, M., Hussain, S., & Ahmed, T. (2024). Corporate governance and dividend policy in Pakistan: The role of ownership structure and firm characteristics. Managerial Finance, 50(3), 221-234.

Firth, M., Gao, J., Shen, J., et al. (2016). Institutional stock ownership and firms’ cash dividend policies: Evidence from China. Journal of Banking & Finance, 65, 91–107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbankfin.2016.01.009

Gill, A., Biger, N., & Tibrewala, R. (2010). Determinants of Dividend Payout Ratios: Evidence from United States. The Open Business Journal, 3(1), 8–14. https://doi.org/10.2174/1874915101003010008

Grinstein, Y., & Michaely, R. (2005). Institutional Holdings and Payout Policy. The Journal of Finance, 60(3), 1389–1426. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6261.2005.00765.x

Hair, J. F., Black, W. C., Babin, B. J., & Anderson, R. E. (2010) Multivariate Data Analysis, 7th ed. New York: Pearson.

Han, K. C., Lee, S. H., & Suk, D. Y. (1999). Institutional Shareholders and Dividends. Journal of Financial and Strategic Decisions, 12(1), 53-64.

Hartono, J., & Robiyanto, R. (2023). Factors affecting dividend policy inconsistency: Evidence from Indonesian manufacturing firms. Emerging Markets Review, 54, 100776.

Jensen, M. C., & Meckling, W. H. (1976). Theory of the Firm: Managerial Behaviour, Agency Costs, and Ownership Structure. Journal of Financial Economics, 3(4), 305-360. https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-405X(76)90026-X

Jones, S., & Sharma, R. (2001). The association between the investment opportunity set and corporate financing and dividend decisions: some Australian evidence. Managerial Finance, 27(3), 48–64. https://doi.org/10.1108/03074350110767097

Jory, S. R., Ngo, T., & Sakaki, H. (2017). Institutional ownership stability and dividend payout policy. Managerial Finance, 43(10), 1170–1188. https://doi.org/10.1108/mf-09-2016-0272

Karismawati, N. P. A. & Suarjaya, A. A. G. (2020). The Effect of Dividend Policy, Sales Growth, and Liquidity of the Company’s Capital Structure. American Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences Research, 4(5), 25-31.

Khan, M., Yilmaz, R., & Aksoy, T. (2024). The relationship between board demographic diversity and dividend payout policy in Turkey. Emerging Markets Review, 56, 100793.

Kim, S., & Sul, W. (2010). Impact of Foreign Institutional Investors on Dividend Policy in Korea: A Stock Market Perspective. Journal of Financial Management and Analysis, 23(1), 10-26.

Lang, L., & Litzenberger, R. H. (1989). Dividend announcements: Cash flow signaling vs. free cash flow hypothesis? Journal of Financial Economics, 24(1), 181-191. https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-405X(89)90077-9

Lee, C. W., Hsu, H. H., Peng, S. J., et al. (2022). Exploring the Determinants of Company’s Dividend Payout Policy in Vietnamese Stock Market. Journal of Applied Finance & Banking, 12(2), 1–25. https://doi.org/10.47260/jafb/1221

Maharani, S., Lukiana, N., & Fauziah, A. (2021). The Effect of Current Ratio, Debt to Equity Ratio, and Return on Assets on Dividend Payout Ratio in IDX High Dividend Index Company 20 (2017-2019). Progress Conference, 4(1), 183-184.

Miller, D., Amore, M. D., Quarato, F., et al. (2022). Family Ownership Dispersion and Dividend Payout in Family Firms. Journal of Family Business Strategy, 13(3), 100436. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfbs.2021.100436

Pesaran, M. H. (2006). Estimation and Inference in Large Heterogeneous Panels with a Multifactor Error Structure. Econometrica, 74(4), 967–1012. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0262.2006.00692.x

Purwanto, I., Sanjaya, I. K. P. W., & Kawisana, P. G. W. P. (2021). The Effect of Debt To Equity Ratio, Total Asset Turnover, Return On Assets And Return On Equity On Dividend Policy In Manufacturing Companies. Journal of Tourism Economics and Policy, 1(2), 41–47. https://doi.org/10.38142/jtep.v1i3.109

Redding, L. S. (1997). Firm Size and Dividend Payouts. Journal of Financial Intermediation, 6(3), 224–248. https://doi.org/10.1006/jfin.1997.0221

Rozeff, M. S. (1982). Growth, beta and agency costs as determinants of dividend payout ratios. Journal of Financial Research, 5(3), 249–259. Portico. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-6803.1982.tb00299.x

Short, H., Zhang, H., & Keasey, K. (2002). The link between dividend policy and institutional ownership. Journal of Corporate Finance, 8(2), 105-122. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0929-1199(01)00030-X

Sinova, B., & Van Aelst, S. (2018). Advantages of M-estimators of location for fuzzy numbers based on Tukey’s biweight loss function. International Journal of Approximate Reasoning, 93, 219–237. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijar.2017.10.032

Spence, M. (1973). Job Market Signaling. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 87(3), 355. https://doi.org/10.2307/1882010

Subhi, K. T., & Al Azkiya, A. (2022). Comparison of Cochrane-Orcutt and Hildreth-Lu Methods to Overcome Autocorrelation in Time Series Regression (Case Study of Gorontalo Province HDI 2010-2021). Parameter: Journal of Statistics, 2(2), 30–36. https://doi.org/10.22487/27765660.2022.v2.i2.15913

Wooldridge, J. (2008). Introductory Econometrics, 4th ed. Mason, OH: Western Cengage Learning.

Zahid, R. M. A., Taran, A., Khan, M. K., et al. (2023). ESG, dividend payout policy and the moderating role of audit quality: Empirical evidence from Western Europe. Borsa Istanbul Review, 23(2), 350–367. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bir.2022.10.012