Cash holdings as a proportion of total assets of North American corporations have roughly doubled between 1971 and 2006. Prior research attributes the large cash increase to a rise in firms' cash flow volatility. We investigate two mechanisms by which increased volatility can lead to higher cash...

Cash holdings as a proportion of total assets of U.S corporations have roughly doubled between 1971 and 2006. Prior research attributes the large cash increase to a rise in firms' idiosyncratic risk. We investigate two mechanisms by which increased idiosyncratic risk can lead to higher cash...