Financialization,Shareholder Orientation and the Cash Holdings of US Corporations

Growth in the cash holdings of US nonfinancial corporations (NFCs) has received considerable attention in recent years. These cash holdings constitute a primary component of the growth in firm-level financial asset holdings often highlighted in analyses of the ‘financialization’ of NFCs. In this article, I use a panel of US corporations to empirically analyze two links between corporate cash holdings and the literature on financialization. First, I find a small but positive relationship between cash holdings and shareholder value ideology among large corporations. I capture the growing entrenchment of shareholder ideology using average industry-level stock repurchases, to proxy for industry-level norms encouraging managers to target stock price-based indicators of firm performance. Second, I find a positive relationship between a firm's cash holdings and a measure of the differential it earns between interest income and expense. Given that cash is classified with short-term marketable (and, therefore, interest-bearing) securities on firm balance sheets, this result lends empirical support to the hypothesis that traditionally nonfinancial firms are increasingly engaged in borrowing and lending for profit.     

Deviations from optimal corporate cash holdings and the valuation from a shareholder’s perspective

The trade-off theory of corporate cash holdings predicts that there is an optimal level of cash. We test the trade-off theory by investigating the relation between deviations from optimal cash holdings and the valuation of cash from a shareholder’s perspective. We decompose corporate cash holdings into the optimal level of cash and the deviations from the optimum. We find that the marginal value of cash for shareholders is higher when a change in cash moves corporate cash holdings towards the optimal level and that this relationship holds for both the above-optimal deviations and the below-optimal deviations. We conclude that the results are consistent with the prediction of the trade-off theory of corporate cash holdings.     

Political Connections and Firm Performance in Chinese Companies

This study uses panel data analysis to examine the relationship between political connections and firm performance in Chinese firms from 2004 to 2008. We define firm‐level political connections and demonstrate a robust result for the positive relationship between political connections and firm performance. In addition, we integrate the effects of ownership structure, related‐party transactions and political connections into our analysis and continue to show a positive relationship. We show that political connections dampen the negative effect on firm value of related‐party transactions. Finally, we demonstrate channels through which the benefits of political connections are realized in terms of greater cash holdings, larger long‐term loans, lower financing costs, larger sales and lower sales costs. Our results indicate that state‐owned and non‐state‐owned enterprises use political connections equally effectively to enhance performance.     

家族创始人职业经历与企业财务保守行为研究

基于创始人自身特征的异质性,文章研究了家族创始人职业经历与企业财务保守行为的关系。研究发现,与家族创始人具有企业部门职业经历的企业相比,创始人具有公共部门职业经历的企业财务杠杆更低,短期借款占比更小,现金持有更多,且连续三年采用低杠杆的可能性更高。进一步地,企业所处行业的产品市场不确定性越高,家族创始人公共部门职业经历与企业财务保守行为的正相关关系越强。此外,家族创始人具有公共部门职业经历的企业会计及市场业绩均更好。研究表明,家族创始人具有公共部门职业经历的企业财务决策更为保守,原因在于这类家族创始人的风险厌恶程度较高,使企业更易形成相对保守的文化氛围。文章从创始人职业经历异质性的角度发展了家族企业财务保守成因的研究,以及管理者个人特征与企业财务决策关系的研究,同时有助于投资者识别企业财务风险。     

新冠肺炎疫情冲击下企业现金持有的预防价值研究

最近爆发的新冠肺炎疫情牵动着亿万民众的心,面对突如其来的疫情,企业资金面临着巨大压力。企业持有现金主要源于预防和交易动机,然而预防动机的特性决定了其在企业正常经营状态下难以直观体现,因而目前鲜有研究对企业现金持有的预防价值进行直接检验。本文以新冠肺炎疫情事件的冲击为研究切入点,通过考察不同现金持有水平的企业在面临危机冲击的市场反应,发现企业现金持有水平与事件窗口期内的累计超额收益率呈显著正相关关系,从而为现金持有的预防价值提供了更为直接的经验证据。而且,当公司受疫情冲击程度越大时,二者之间正相关关系越强。进一步发现,企业现金持有的预防价值在企业现金流压力大以及外部融资环境较差时更加凸显。本研究丰富了已有关于现金持有预防价值的相关文献,并对政府与企业应采取何种举措以应对突发事件具有一定的启示。     

EXIT OPTIONS AND DIVIDEND POLICY UNDER LIQUIDITY CONSTRAINTS

We introduce a post‐entry liquidity constraint to the standard model of a firm with serially correlated profitability and an irreversible exit decision. We assume that firms with no cash holdings and negative cash flow must either exit or raise new cash at a transaction cost. This creates a precautionary motive for holding cash, which must be traded off against the liquidity cost of holding cash. We characterize the optimal exit and payout policy. The direct effect of financial frictions is to impose inefficient exit, but there is also an indirect effect through higher equilibrium price that leads to inefficient survival.     

Gender diversity,cash holdings and the role of the institutional environment: empirical evidence in Europe

While substantial evidence is emerging internationally on higher risk aversion among women than among men, there is less evidence on women’s business choices. We explore some of the reasons for the relationship between gender diversity and cash holdings. Specifically, this paper focuses on the choices involving the stock of cash held by firms in which women have executive roles and can consequently exert a crucial influence on the firms themselves. We estimate our proposed empirical models using a dataset of 12,466 observations from 18 European countries. We find a positive relationship between the presence of women with executive roles in the firm and cash holdings. Women tend to make more conservative choices probably because they are more risk averse than men are. This propensity has a relevant impact on the financial choices of firms when women play a leading role. Notably, the study demonstrates that the institutional environment and industry differences moderate our baseline relationship.     

公司治理、不确定性与现金价值

本文构建公司治理综合性指标体系,系统研究投资者对企业现金价值的评价问题.研究证实综合治理水平与不确定性对现金价值影响显著;高治理效率公司的现金价值高于低治理效率公司的现金价值,投资者愿为治理良好的公司支付流动性溢价;企业持有现金的投资缓冲功能使得受融资约束公司比不受融资约束公司的现金价值高.经验分析表明,优化企业治理机制、畅通融资渠道有利于减少现金占用,提高企业在不确定环境中的风险应对能力.     

EXPORT AND HEDGING DECISIONS UNDER CORRELATED REVENUE AND EXCHANGE RATE RISK

This paper examines the behaviour of a competitive exporting firm under joint revenue and exchange rate risk. The firm can trade unbiased currency futures contracts for hedging purposes. We show that neither the separation theorem nor the full‐hedging theorem holds when the revenue shock prevails. If the correlation between the revenue shock and the random spot exchange rate is non‐positive, the firm optimally produces less than the benchmark level when the revenue shock is absent. If, in addition, the firm is prudent, the optimal futures position is an under‐hedge. Finally, we derive sufficient conditions under which the firm's optimal output level is higher in the presence than in the absence of the revenue shock. Operational hedging and financial hedging as such interact in a complicated way to better cope with the multiple sources of uncertainty faced by the firm.     

The economic policy uncertainty and firm investment in Australia

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the impact of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on the Australian firm investment activity. We find a significant positive relationship between the EPU and the firm investment over 2002 to 2017 period. Our main results remain unchanged after several endogeneity tests. Further analysis reveals that this relationship becomes pronounced for firms if their headquarters located in small states, firms with more tangible assets, higher operating cash flows and cash holdings, higher profits and leverage, but firms with fewer dividend payouts. Our paper sheds lights on the unique attribute of the impact of the EPU on the Australian firm investment activity and offers important policy and managerial implications.     

市场化改革与现金持有动态调整——一个理论研究框架

企业特征、宏观经济环境对现金持有动态调整的重要影响已基本形成共识,但近年来,越来越多的研究表明,市场化改革是研究企业现金持有行为必须重视的一项重要制度背景,那么,更为关键的一个问题是:市场化改革是如何影响企业现金持有动态调整的呢?对现金持有动态调整相关文献研究述评并构建系统的理论研究框架,从驱动力量和约束条件两个层面剖析市场化改革对现金持有动态调整的影响机理与经济后果,结果显示:市场化改革能够改善企业现金持有动态调整行为。政府应进一步放松行政干预与管制,加快市场化改革进程。     

On the Separability of Real and Financial Decisions

The financial manager faces two basic problems: first, the firm’s investment or capital budgeting decision, and second, the financing decision. Capital investment and financing decisions are typically analyzed independently. Capital budgeting criteria proceeds under the simplest possible assumption about financing, namely all-equity financing. The only link between investment and financing decisions is the cost of capital. The basic idea behind Modigliani and Miller’s famous proposition I is that in perfect markets, changes in capital structure do not affect value. As long as the total cash flow generated by the firm’s assets is unchanged by capital structure, value is independent of capital structure. This paper is the first attempt to prove that leverage affects the mathematical structures of the cash flow of financing, and that different mathematical structures of financing cash flows may change the total cash flows generated by the firm or the project, thus altering the value of the firm even in perfect markets. The purpose of this paper is to explore the validity of the separation rule through net present value (NPV) and internal rate of return (IRR) rules, as representatives of academic and business practice, and compare their results with simulations that will include the financial decision of the firm. A singular experiment proving that we can change the IRR or NPV of an investment modifying the financial structure cannot be used to affirm a universal statement, but it can be used to show that a theory is wrong.     

Does a firm’s supplier concentration affect its cash holding?

High supplier concentration (SC) of a firm can weaken the firm’s bargaining power, which reduces its profitability and internal funds. Also, high SC likely increases the firm’s exposure to supply shocks, which results in high costs of external financing. Consequently, high-SC firms will incline to hold more cash due to the precautionary concern. However, there is little research into the effect of SC on cash holdings. This paper investigates how SC affects cash holdings with Chinese firms over 2009–2016. We find that a firm’s cash holding increases with its SC. Further investigations show that this positive relation stems from the unfavorable impact of SC on trade credit and equity financing. Our results are robust to different tests including the instrumental variable approach and the propensity score matching. Our findings are new to the literature and help to explain the cash holding puzzle. Our study also indicates that choosing supplier concentration adequately is important in maintaining a firm’s financial health.     

Cap-and-Trade and Financial Constraints: Is Investment Independent of Permit Holdings?

We study a new channel by which permit holdings in a cap-and-trade system can affect investment behavior. In the presence of financial constraints, permit holdings can matter through their effect on the firm’s internally available resources and indirectly affect investment. To test this relationship, we exploit the cross-sectional and temporal variation in permit holdings and the temporal variation in the price of permits in the US \(\hbox {SO}_2\) program. We find that capital expenditures are positively related to the market value of the permit holdings. This relationship is stronger for smaller firms and is robust to alternative explanations based on regulatory differences.     

Exchange Rate Exposure of Chinese Firms at the Industry and Firm Level

This study investigates the exchange rate exposure of Chinese firms at the industry and firm level based on the conventional capital asset pricing model (CAPM) framework. At the industry level, the dynamic conditional correlation MGARCH (DCC MGARCH) estimates demonstrate that the market model and three‐factor model are appropriate for exposure measurements, and industry returns are more likely to be exposed to unanticipated changes in the real exchange rate and the trade‐weighted effective exchange rate, particularly for manufacturing industries. At the firm level, although the seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) estimates vary across markets, it is apparent that there is a relationship between firm size and exposure effects, which also show that lagged exchange rate changes have significant exposure effects on firm returns. This study finally suggests that non‐financial firms should set up special commissions to hedge currency risks of their future cash flows.     

中小电子信息企业现金持有水平比较分析

选择中小板和创业板50家中小电子企业和40家中小信息服务企业的面板数据为样本,应用实证方法分析中小企业债务来源结构对现金持有水平的影响,并对中小电子企业和中小信息服务企业的现金持有水平进行横向比较。结果显示,中小电子企业和中小信息服务企业的现金持有水平均与经营负债率正相关,与金融负债率负相关,而且中小电子企业现金持有水平大大低于中小信息服务企业现金持有水平。因此,中小企业应该通过设计合理的债务来源结构来维持合理的现金持有水平。     

Theoretical motives of corporate cash holdings and political connections: firms level evidence from a developing economy

In this paper, we revisit the theoretical motives of corporate cash holdings while concentrating on the effect of political connections. In particular, we postulate two competing hypotheses for the effects that political connections can have on cash holdings: ‘substitution effect hypothesis’ and ‘complementary effect hypothesis’. Using the data on Pakistani firms over the period 2002–2010, we find that connected firms hold significantly larger cash reserves than their non-connected counterparts, thus confirming the ‘complementary hypothesis’, which suggests that agency problems lead connected firms to accumulate large amount of cash. Further, this effect is found to be more pronounced in dictatorial as opposed to democratic regimes indicating the presence of higher degrees of political patronage in that period. Finally, we also find differences in the complementary effect based on firm characteristics. Our results suggest that the firm size and leverage have increasing effects on the cash holdings of connected firms, contrary to the mainstream literature standpoint.     

Relationship between initiative risk management and firm value: evidence from Chinese financial listed companies

This study considers 189 Chinese financial listed companies between 2009 and 2013 as research samples to establish indicators for evaluating the initiative risk management behaviour of financial enterprises. This work further examines the relationship between initiative risk management and firm value. Results show that financial enterprises could effectively increase firm value by taking initiative risk management measures, such as setting up departments or positions that specialize in risk management, using financial derivative instruments or engaging popular international accounting firms as audit institutions. Moreover, results reveal that the permeability of initiative risk management has an unstable effect on firm value, that is, a nonlinear relationship exists between the permeability of initiative risk management and firm value.     

制度背景、股权性质与公司持有现金价值

本文借鉴Fama和French(1998)经典企业价值回归模型的思想,实证分析了我国上市公司持有现金的市场价值。结果表明,就我国上市公司整体而言,公司持有现金的价值小于账面价值。进一步研究表明,公司持有现金的价值受公司股权性质的影响,公司的国有股权性质降低了公司持有现金的价值。本文从公司持有现金价值的视角进一步说明我国投资者法律保护程度偏低,上市公司中代理问题严重,也为我国上市公司的自由现金流假说与掏空行为提供了证据。     

Waste disclosure and corporate cash holdings

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we address an important and emerging question: Can firms’ voluntary waste disclosure affect corporate cash holdings? Using a sample of S&P 500 firms, we find strong evidence for a positive relationship between waste disclosure and the cash holding policy of firms. Furthermore, we find that waste disclosure significantly increases cash holdings only for firms with strong corporate governance quality. We also find that the significant relationship between waste disclosure and cash holdings remains unchanged only for firms that operate in environmentally sensitive industries. Our paper provides novel evidence on the role of voluntary waste disclosure as an environmental dimension that influences the cash policy of firms and highlights the little-known issue of waste disclosure as a significant research topic.