Using U.S. data over the period 1971-2005, we identify a J-shaped relation between firm value and the amount of dividends. Top-dividend-payers tend to be valued higher than all other firms including non-dividend-payers, while non-dividend-payers tend to be valued higher than lowdividend- payers. This finding is robust to controlling for the potential self-selection bias in the value-dividend relation. Overall, the empirical value-dividend relation does not conform to the predictions of the simple tax or free cash flow hypothesis but to the prediction of the prodividend clientele hypothesis. Our evidence suggests that the demands of pro-dividend clienteles are concentrated in top-dividend-payers and that the high firm values of top-dividendpayers reflect such demands.