... and banks, thus weakening their willingness to invest. In the face of a possible loss of resources, management may then engage in tone manipulation in order to conceal unstable operations by the enterprise. In addition, an increase in agency cost impairs the consistency of goals between shareholders...

... of expense variable. Originality/value This paper confirms that dividend regulation serves an important role in corporate governance, which reduces firms' agency costs and thereby decreases cost stickiness. The conclusions shed light on the dividend policies of listed companies and capital market...