Free Cash Flow Hypothesis, Life-Cycle Theory and Their Relationship with Dividend Policy

This paper investigates the relationship between free cash flow, life cycle and dividend policy in Tehran Stock Exchange listed companies during 2002-2009. Using 304 company-year and conducting OLS Regression model, results revealed that there are no significant relationship between dividend policy and free cash flow, which is not consistent with free cash flow hypothesis and the relationship with dividend policy in prior researches (Fama and French, 2001; Grullon and et al., 2002 and Deangelo and et al., 2006). The findings also reveal that there are no significant relationship between companie's life cycle and their dividend policies.