This paper examines the role of cross credit rating changes on corporate cash holdings policies, focusing on the "big three" credit rating agencies (Standard and Poor's, Fitch and Moody's). Using a hand collected sample of credit ratings for firms listed at the S&P500 we initially verify the...

We study how financing constraints affect the cash holdings of small and mediumsized enterprises. There has been little empirical work on this topic, even though these firms often face financial constraints. We contribute by using detailed data on credit ratings in Sweden as a measure of...

We examine firms' simultaneous choice of investment, debt financing and liquidity in a large sample of US corporates between 1980 and 2014. We partition the sample according to the firms' financial constraints and their needs to hedge against future shortfalls in operating income. In contrast to...

This paper explores how affiliates of multinational corporations save liquidity when facing a transitory cash-flow shock. For this a panel is first built of non-publicly traded copper mines in South America between 2001 and 2012, most of them set up as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). This...

Ensuring that a firm has sufficient liquidity to finance valuable projects that occur in the future is at the heart of the practice of financial management. Yet, while discussion of these issues goes back at least to Keynes (1936), a substantial literature on the ways in which firms manage...

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...

This paper investigates the empirical determinants of corporate cash holdings in the euro area as a function of firm size. The results show that there are significant differences in investment in liquid assets for firms of different size. More specifically, liquid assets for smaller firms in the...

This Article reports results of an empirical study that suggests that the current economic crisis has changed managerial behavior in the US in a way that may impede economic recovery. The study finds a strong, statistically significant and economically meaningful, positive correlation between...

This paper reviews empirical evidence on the use of bank lines of credit as a source of corporate liquidity. Traditional explanation for lines of credit is that they provide insurance against liquidity shocks, in much the same as way hoarding cash does. However, recent empirical research...

Evidence from a wide sample of Italian private firms shows that cash holdings are significantly related with smaller size, higher risk and lower effective tax rates, therefore supporting predictions from the trade-off model. More cash is also held by firms with longer cash conversion cycles and...