This book provides a comprehensive overview of corporate payout behavior of Japanese and European firms for the period 1980-2006, examines the substitution hypothesis of share repurchase in these regions, provides alternative measures of transitory earnings and examines the effect of transitory earnings on share repurchase decisions. It analyzes two questions- first, whether managers prefer share repurchases over dividends in Japan and Europe and second, whether transitory earnings drive share repurchases decisions in these two regions.