IMPACT OF INDUSTRY SPECIFIC VARIABLES ON THE DIVIDEND POLICY OF OIL AND GAS SECTOR IN PAKISTAN

Dividends act as a pathway to attract investments andpetroleum industry of Pakistan has remained an important element in economic progress. Therefore, this research investigates the impact of corporate tax, financial leverage and sales growth on dividend payout ratio of oil & gas sector companies in Pakistan. Secondary data of 10 companies for 12 years have been incorporated. Hypotheses have been tested using fixed effects regression technique which was confirmed through Hausman specification test. Empirical findings reveal that corporate tax and sales growth have insignificant positive impacts, whereas financial leverage has an insignificant negative impact on the dividend payout ratio. The study concludes that decisions about dividend payouts should be made by considering other variables