In addition, the results indicate that firms with higher profitability (ROA) provide higher dividend yield and larger firms
tend to pay higher dividend payout ratio and dividend yield. These findings support the free cash flow and the life-cycle
hypotheses. Further, the results show that the coefficient of market-to-book ratio, a proxy for growth opportunities, on
dividend payout ratio is significantly negative, which supports the free cash flow and life-cycle hypotheses. On the
contrary, however, the coefficient between market-to-book ratio and dividend yield is significantly positive. Finally, the
findings again show positive relationship between financial leverage and dividend payouts, both in terms of dividend
payout ratio and dividend yield, a common finding in this research which might suggest that Thai firms use debt
financing to pay dividends. This is in line with Aivazian et al. (2003) who document that firms in emerging markets
appears to be reliant on bank debt for their dividend payments.