We regress our estimates of the implied cost of equity capital on the taxpenalized
portion of dividend yield, institutional ownership, and the interaction
of these two variables, while controlling for the ratio of book-to-market
value of equity, growth, analyst forecast dispersion, industry risk premia, and
the Fama and French [1996] risk factors. The results are consistent with the
existence of a dividend tax premium. Specifically, the implied cost of equity
capital is positively related to the tax-penalized portion of dividend yield for
each of the three measures of cost of equity capital. Additionally, consistent
with cross-sectional differences in the rate at which dividend taxes affect the
implied cost of equity capital, the magnitude of the dividend tax premium
is decreasing in aggregate institutional ownership for each of the three cost
of capital measures.