The value of corporate cash holdings has increased significantly in recent decades. On average, one dollar of cash is valued at $0.61 in the 1980s, $1.04 in the 1990s, and $1.12 in the 2000s. This increase is predominantly driven by the investment opportunity set and cash-flow volatility, as...

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...

We assess the extent to which remotely-located firms are likely to discretionarily accumulate cash rather than distribute it to shareholders. We consider that these firms are less subject to shareholder scrutiny and, thus, will have high agency conflicts as the distance will facilitate the...

Using a database of more than 180,000 private companies from 2000 to 2009, we find that the benefits of holding more cash vary substantially with a firm's size and the conditions it faces. Cash holdings matter most for small firms: when there are negative shocks to industry or macroeconomic...

In this paper, we examine the impact of excess cash on firm decisions about accretive share repurchases — those increasing earnings per share (EPS) by at least one cent — and the impact of these repurchases on firm investments and value. Employing a fuzzy regression discontinuity design, we...

This paper empirically documents how the interaction between competition and time frictions in capital markets impacts firms' cash management decisions. Using the introduction of the U.S. Securities Offering Reform in 2005 as a quasi-natural experiment, we show that a shorter time-to-finance...

This study examines the effect of technology spillovers on firms' cash holdings. It finds that firms facing greater technology spillovers hold higher cash balances. This effect is more pronounced among financially constrained firms and for firms that are likely to benefit more from diffused...

We examine the relation between cash holdings, corporate governance and financial constraints. We find that firms with weak shareholder rights hold less cash, in contrast to the predictions of agency theory. This result is partly due to the positive correlation that exists between shareholder...

Corporate cash has become an increasingly large component of corporate balance sheets over the past fifty years. We survey the literature on corporate cash holdings that assesses (i) cross-sectional and time-series patterns in cash holdings; (ii) theoretical explanations for these patterns; and...

The determinants of firm level cash holdings are well documented, yet relatively less is known about the influence of CEO characteristics on corporate liquidity decisions. We examine changes in cash holdings around CEO turnover events, a period in which discrete changes in managerial preferences...