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We examine the effect of state corporate income tax rate changes on firms' liquidity management. Using a difference-in-differences design, we find that firms hold more cash when they are experiencing an increase in state corporate income tax rate. More specifically, on average, a 1 percent increase in state corporate income tax rate leads to a 2.51 percent increase in firms' average cash holdings. We also find that the effect is stronger in firms with low and risky cash flows, more growth opportunities, and more financial constraints. We find no evidence of this relationship when the state corporate income tax rate decreases. Overall, these findings suggest that firms conserve more cash to mitigate tax-induced frictions, which is consistent with the precautionary motive of cash holdings. Our paper speaks to policymakers that the increase of state income tax rate has real effects on firms' cash holdings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document provides summaries of research papers published in the Journal of the American Taxation Association. The first paper examines the relationship between stock price incentives and earnings management using tax expense. It finds that while stock price incentives are not significantly associated with earnings management on average, firms are more likely to manage earnings using tax expense as opportunities increase. The second paper discusses the impact of corporate tax disclosure regulation and highlights the limited effectiveness of disclosure regimes. The third paper presents a field experiment conducted by the California Franchise Tax Board, showing that improving Interactive Voice Response systems can enhance tax collection efficiency. The fourth paper investigates the effect of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act on employees' pay satisfaction, finding a greater decline in satisfaction at firms announcing bonuses compared to those that do not. These papers offer valuable insights into various aspects of taxation and have implications for policymakers and firms. [Extracted from the article]

Using a unique database that includes publicly disclosed fund holdings at the end of the quarter as well as the holdings in all non-publicly disclosed months, we found that some funds could alter their portfolios in publicly disclosed months to artificially increase their Active Share scores and consequently appear more active and take advantage of the positive relationship between Active Share and money flows. We show how, consistent with non-informed trades, these funds erode their future performance. However, these funds reach their objective of increasing future money flows. Moreover, we find that window-dresser funds can be identified by controlling the level of tracking error. The funds with high Active Share scores and low tracking errors have the highest levels of Active Share window dressing and the worst future returns. However, compared with less active funds, they are able to capture higher money flows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the relationship between corporate cash holdings and investment efficiency, with a focus on how COVID-19 and the presence of women directors may influence this relationship. Using data from Indonesian public companies during the COVID-19 period, comprising 2350 firm-year observations, we employ fixed-effect regression models with industry and year controls to test our hypotheses. Robustness and endogeneity tests are conducted to ensure the reliability of our findings. Our research reveals that companies with larger cash reserves tend to experience decreased investment efficiency during the COVID-19 crisis. Moreover, the negative impact of substantial cash reserves on investment efficiency is exacerbated by the presence of female directors on the board. However, our findings also suggest that female directors can mitigate the adverse effects of excessive cash reserves on a company's investment efficiency, particularly during unforeseen economic challenges such as the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using textual analysis techniques, including seeded word embedding and bag-of-words-based content analysis, I develop a firm-level measure of supply chain risk exposure from a novel source of unstructured data—the discussion between managers and equity analysts on supply chain-related topics during firms' quarterly earnings conference calls. I validate the measure by showing that (1) the measure exhibits intuitive variations over time and across firms, successfully capturing both routine and systematic supply chain risk events; and (2) the measure is about risk exposure, as it significantly correlates with realized and options-implied stock return volatility, even after controlling for well-known aggregate risk measures. I then demonstrate that the measure is specifically indicative of the supply chain component of risk exposure. (3) Consistent with theoretical predictions, firms facing higher supply chain risks have higher inventory buffers, particularly in raw materials and intermediate inputs, increased cash holdings in lieu of investments, and significantly lower trade credit received from suppliers. Moreover, (4) during unexpected risk episodes, such as the Tohoku earthquake, firms with higher ex ante risk exposure have worse operating and financial performance. These results indicate that the text-based measure provides a credible quantification of firm-level exposure to supply chain risks and can thus be reliably utilized as outcome or explanatory variables in empirical supply chain research. This paper was accepted by Jeannette Song, operations management. Supplemental Material: The data files and online appendix are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4927. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We find a significant positive role of chief executive officer (CEO) social capital on the level of corporate risk‐taking for Chinese listed firms from 2008 to 2019. We reveal that a better business environment tends to reduce this positive relationship. In addition, we also find that corporate innovations provide moderation effects on the relationship. Further analysis of heterogeneity tests on firm characteristics suggests that CEO social capital's effect on corporate risk‐taking is significant and stronger for non‐state‐owned enterprises, firms with fewer female directors on their board, and firms with more cash holdings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese firms simultaneously have high levels of loans and cash holdings. Through listed firms on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges, we establish a negative link between cash holdings and a firm's loan bargaining power, especially in regions with less bank competition, through a firm's passive response to bank requests rather than its voluntary excess cash reserves. Furthermore, state ownership, collateral, economic contribution, and reduced information asymmetry may effectively strengthen firm bargaining power and moderate the link. However, better marketisation strengthens the link. The banking sector may need to improve its efficiency through better credit rationing in future reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines whether state ownership and political connections affect the relationship between customer concentration and cash holdings for Chinese listed manufacturing firms. We show that non‐state‐owned firms, but not state‐owned firms, hold more cash as customer concentration increases. In addition, political connections weaken the positive effect of customer concentration on non‐state‐owned firms' cash holdings. Our supplemental analyses further show that for non‐state‐owned firms with limited access to finance—for instance, firms with low analyst following, low institutional ownership, or low government subsidies—the effects of political connections on weakening the positive association between customer concentration and cash holdings are more pronounced. Additional robustness tests support our arguments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given that marriage transforms people, with wide‐ranging and long‐lasting impacts, we examine the role of CEOs' marital status on firms' cash holdings behaviour. Using a large sample of US‐listed firms, we find that single CEOs stockpile more cash than their married counterparts do. Our finding is robust to controlling for various CEO characteristics, CFO influence, tackling endogeneity concerns and using alternative measures of cash. Moreover, we show that exogenous CEO turnover resulting in appointments of single (married) CEOs increases (decreases) cash holdings. Additional results show that single‐CEO firms practise a more conservative payout policy and save more cash from operating and financing cash flows. Consistent with agency theory, single CEOs extract more compensation from the accumulated cash, leading to a lower value of cash holdings. External corporate governance mechanisms mitigate the relationship between single CEOs and cash holdings. Our results show that single‐CEO firms are more prone to agency problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Contemporary Accounting Research is the property of Canadian Academic Accounting Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Contemporary Accounting Research is the property of Canadian Academic Accounting Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Our study investigates how CEO-friendly boards influence the value and utilization of cash resources. In this paper, we analyze two conflicting views on CEO-friendly boards and their impact on corporate cash holdings: one view posits that such boards might be too lenient, fostering managerial moral hazard problem, while the other contends that they encourage CEOs to share information, despite CEOs knowing that better-informed boards could enforce stricter oversight. By measuring board friendliness through CEO-board social ties, we find that firms with a friendly board tend to maintain lower cash reserves but their excess cash is valued higher by the market compared to firms without such a board. Moreover, these boards deploy excess cash in ways that significantly enhance firm value. The results remain robust even after controlling for various governance variables and CEO characteristics. Our findings offer crucial insights for corporate practitioners and policymakers, highlighting the importance of appointing and retaining CEO-friendly directors to foster effective information exchange, especially in firms with substantial CEO-board information asymmetry in capital budgeting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work aimed to examine the effect of corporate cash holdings on financial performance. The data covered 536 non-financial firms for the 2006–2020 period from 11 MENA region countries. This study used fixed- and random-effects testing models. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study that aimed to study the effect of corporate cash holdings on financial performance in MENA countries in two aspects: linear and non-linear relationships. By using the return on assets, return on equity, earnings before interest, and the tax margin as the indicators of financial performance, we developed two groups of models investigating the linear and non-linear relationships between cash holdings and profitability measures. The models included several control variables, namely leverage, firm size, sales growth rate, tangibility, dividend pay-out ratio, and gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate. The results of this study revealed that both the linear and non-linear models produced significant results for the return on assets and the return on equity, but for the earnings before interest and tax margins, the linear model was insignificant. The non-linear models indicated an optimal level of cash holdings. In this context, the policymakers must actively evaluate these policies, such as working capital management and its effect on financial performance. In addition, the policymakers must consider macroeconomic conditions when designing corporate cash-holding policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of asset status and external factors related to asset status on income distribution disparities among senior executives, employees, and shareholders. Incorporating micro-level data and theoretical analysis, the data of Chinese a-share listed companies from 2012 to 2021 are selected for panel regression analysis. Existing research has often focused on the main differences in income between employees and executives. This study reveals that the distribution of total corporate income among employees, executives, and shareholders can better reflect the fluctuating trend of income variance among different groups. It was found that asset efficiency, asset market value, and asset property rights, among other asset status factors, significantly influence the degree of inequality in income distribution. Empirical research results indicated that corporate executives can benefit similarly to shareholders from improvements in asset efficiency and other asset status factors. Following an increase in corporate cash holdings, executives tend to benefit more relative to employees. Additionally, digital inclusive finance and equity concentration both have moderating effects, mitigating the impact of asset status on inequality in income distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theoretical background: High levels of cash holdings allow companies to be financially flexible. Cash holders can react to business opportunities at once, and avoid dependence on external financing. Having cash reserves acts as a protective cushion from possible business shocks. However, cash holdings, like other asset items, incur cost. The direct costs mostly relate to obtaining and servicing of financing. Excessive cash may also induce the agency problem of free cash flow. Information asymmetry, among other factors, influences cost of capital and the efficiency of investor monitoring. Earnings management strategies are related to the informativeness of financial reports, as they can either support or disturb the assessment of company risk and performance. Hence, companies search for tailor-made strategies that usefully trade-off the benefits and costs of cash reserves and earnings quality. Purpose of the article: Earnings management occurs either via intervention in the reporting process using accruals, or changing the structure or the timing of real business transactions. This study aims to assess the differences in accrual and real earnings management strategies between firms with relatively high and low cash reserves. Based on a sample of non-financial companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange in Poland, this research provides evidence on the relationship between the level of cash holdings and earnings quality. Research methods: Earnings management is proxied with annual cross-sectional regressions estimated in non-financial GICS sectors. The Jones and the modified Jones model allow to estimate expected accruals. Using the Roychowdhury approach, normal cash flow from operations, normal production costs, and normal discretionary expenses are estimated. These normal levels are compared with their actual value to proxy for accrual- and real-earnings management. Next, each company was assigned to one of two groups, depending on the level of cash holdings relative to the annual industry medians. Parametric and non-parametric tests were used to test statistical significance. Main findings: The empirical results show statistically significant differences in accrual and real earnings management between companies with relatively high and low cash reserves. Cash holders seem to be more likely to manage earnings via shifting accruals between periods. However, there is no evidence that any of the groups boosted earnings more. Unsigned earnings management proxies suggest lower informativeness of financial reports for companies with cash buffers. Cash holdings were positively related to activities aimed at reducing fixed costs per unit and savings on discretionary expenses. Summing up, this research shows that companies with greater information asymmetry related to poor earnings quality preferred to hold larger cash reserves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines whether and how Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) international inspections mitigate the market value discount in cash holdings. We find that shareholders value internal cash holdings more highly for the non-U.S.-listed clients of inspected auditors after the public disclosure of the auditors' inspection reports. We show that the decreased agency frictions and the increased financial reporting credibility are potential mechanisms. Further, we find that the effect of PCAOB international inspections on the market value of cash holdings is stronger in countries with weaker legal institutions and less sound information environment. Since investors' valuation of cash mirrors how they expect the cash to be used, our results suggest a unique role of PCAOB oversight in mitigating unresolved agency problems and safeguarding corporate resources, thereby lessening investors' markdowns of cash assets. Our findings help identify the real economic impacts of PCAOB oversight in enhancing global stock market confidence. Data Availability: Data are available from the public sources cited in the text. JEL Classifications: G34; M42; M48. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the impact of rivals' announcements of innovation‐driven mergers and acquisitions (M&As) on focal firms' ex‐post corporate innovation performance. Exploiting a hand‐collected dataset of Chinese listed firms from 2011 to 2018, we find that focal firms file fewer patents after rivals' announcements of innovation‐driven M&As. Further analyses show that focal firms become more conservative and hold more cash when rivals intend to obtain innovation resources through M&As. We find that such crowding‐out effects are more pronounced for focal firms that are more financially constrained, those facing higher competition, those whose rivals are industry leaders, and those operating in traditional industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to validate the existence of an extensively documented secular upward trend in corporate cash holding. To do this, we use the new data for Poland and review original datasets from Bates et al. [2009] for the U.S. We find no trace of a trend for Poland and believe most trends for the U.S. come from the cash piling toward the end of the sample period. At best, the U.S. trend applies merely to small firms. We believe cash holding is a period-dependent time-varying variable which also depends on external shocks (e.g., the pandemic or tax regulations). We show that simple addition of macro data (GDP in our case) vastly improves models focused only on optimal cash holding and firm-specific characteristics. We call for a new three-stage approach to study corporate cash, in which micro considerations are complemented by macro data and external liquidity shock analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Business strategy's impact on firm cash holdings and dividend payouts has largely remained unexplored. We identify a fundamental and direct link between a firm's business strategy and its cash holdings and dividend payouts. Analysing two large samples of data on US firms over the period 1992–2017, we find strong evidence that prospectors (defenders) are likely to hold more (less) cash and pay less (more) dividends than other firms. Further analysis suggests that prospectors pay dividends less frequently than do defenders. The results are robust to a battery of robustness checks and additional analysis. Overall, the results suggest that identifying a firm's business strategy significantly helps to understand a firm's cash holdings and dividend payout decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise in firm-level cash asset ratios has become a prominent trend in countries around the world which may further influence the capital allocation efficiency. This study analysed the inefficient effect of cash holdings on the capital allocation by combining the internal capital market theory with principal–agent theory and asymmetric information theory. The theoretical hypotheses were tested using linear panel regression models based on financial data from Chinese listed enterprises. We found that corporations holding more cash assets had lower capital allocation efficiency than those with fewer cash assets, which is consistent with agency theory and asymmetric information theory. Internal capital markets exacerbated this adverse effect. Additional testing was conducted to examine the heterogeneity of this effect between different types of ownership and strategy; the findings showed that an increase in cash holdings had a greater marginal impact on overinvestment among privately owned enterprises and underinvestment among state-owned enterprises. Internal capital market operation alleviated the problem of overinvestment but exacerbated the problem of underinvestment in privately owned enterprises, whereas it increased overinvestment in state-owned enterprises. The results suggested that different types of enterprises should deal with the inefficient effect of cash assets based on the causes of inefficient investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the relationship between institutional fragility and corporate cash holdings. Using data from China between 2004 and 2017, we find that institutional fragility is associated with increased corporate cash holdings. The relationship is stronger for non-state-owned enterprises and stronger when firms have no relationship with banks. Furthermore, we find that institutional fragility reduces current investment opportunities, leading to an increase in corporate cash holdings. Investment opportunities play an intermediary effect; hence, institutional fragility affects corporate cash holdings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a sample of 11,365 unique US firms over the period 1966 to 2021, this study examines the relationship between the age of a firm and its cash holdings. We categorize firms as young, mature, or old based on their age or years of operation. Our results show that firm age is one of the important determinants of cash holdings and that managers adjust cash holdings in response to changing financial needs and risks as firms age. We find that young firms tend to hold higher levels of cash than more established firms and that the marginal value of cash holdings is higher for younger firms. This is consistent with the notion that young firms are more focused on growth and investment and may have limited access to external financial resources. In contrast, mature and old firms tend to hold lower cash levels, possibly due to greater financial stability, increased creditworthiness, and a lower need to manage financial risks. Controlling for significant variables, we confirm our findings with the robustness tests. Taking care of the endogeneity issue, we still can confirm that firm age is negatively significant to the level and the marginal value of cash holdings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By proxying 'awe culture' (i.e., reverence for life and ethical behaviour) with regional induced abortion rates, we examine the impact of awe culture on corporate social responsibility (CSR) in a sample of Chinese firms. We find that firms located in areas with higher induced abortion rates spend less funds on CSR activities and obtain lower CSR scores. The findings remain intact after an array of robustness tests. Further analysis shows that the effect of awe culture on CSR is more pronounced in areas with weaker law enforcement and where the local government emphasises economic growth targets. However, the effect becomes insignificant when firms are well‐represented by top executives with overseas experience, foreign directors, and a high proportion of female board members. The significance of the effect also diminishes for non‐state‐owned firms, and firms with higher institutional ownership and higher cash holdings. Moreover, the lack of awe culture attenuates the positive impact of CSR on firm value. Overall, we document that awe culture, as an informal institution, shapes CSR behaviours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the presence of agency costs, managers retain cash for their own benefit at the expense of shareholder wealth. Extending prior literature on the role of corporate governance in mitigating the effects of agency conflicts on corporate cash holdings, we study a governance mechanism that has largely been overlooked, namely, corporate codes of ethics. We find a negative association between code of ethics quality and cash holdings, which suggests that managers hold less cash when the firm has a strong code of ethics in place. The effect is greater when agency costs are elevated due to weaker country‐level investor protections. We also find that payouts and the marginal value of cash holdings to investors are increasing in code quality. Overall, our results are consistent with codes of ethics helping to limit opportunistic behaviour from managers when determining the firm's level of cash holdings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, combined with the COVID-19 epidemic and the Federal Reserve's interest rate hike, geopolitical risks have increased sharply, which has brought great pressure on the sustainable development of natural resources industry. This study aims to discuss the impact of geopolitical risk (GPR) on corporate excess cash holdings in China's natural resources industry. The findings suggest that GRP can encourage enterprises in the natural resources industry to hold more excess cash. The findings still hold with a suite of robustness tests. The study also evidences that the above effect is more significant for state-owned enterprises, enterprises in the mining industry, and large-scale enterprises. Finally, further results show that with the increase of GPR, enterprises with strong risk-taking capacity tend to hold more excess cash, while enterprises registered in higher market-oriented regions are inclined to retain less excess cash. These findings can conduce to a deep understanding of the influence of GPR on corporate excess cash holdings and serve as a reference for policy-makers to adjust policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aims to explore the effect of equity incentive intensity on defensive behavior in enterprise cash holding decision-making using ordinary least squares, System GMM, and Heckman tests. This study finds that the higher the intensity of equity incentives, the lower the level of corporate excess cash holdings. The intensity of equity incentives inhibits defensive behavior in corporate cash holding decisions. A substitute relationship is observed between equity incentive intensity and product market competition in the inhibition of management defensive behavior in cash holding decision. Our further research finds that the inhibitory effect of equity incentive intensity on the defensive behavior of cash holding decisions mainly exists in the case of ineffective supervision by large shareholders and creditors. For theoretical contribution, this paper tries to explore the governance effect of equity incentive on the management defensive behavior in a company's cash holding decision making. It also reveals the substitute relationship between the intensity of equity incentive and the product market competition in suppressing the management defensive behavior in the cash holding decision of enterprises. Moreover, it provides new evidence for the governance effect of equity incentive in the institutional environment and expands the literature on equity incentive effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study examines the impact of firm financial performance, free cash flow, and cash holding on the overinvestment of manufacturing companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2017-2021. Methodology: We employed 315 manufacturing companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange for the 2017-2021 period as samples. The data required is correlated to financial performance, free cash flow, cash holding, and company overinvestment. Data is input manually from the financial reports obtained from the website of each firm. To examine the hypothesis, this study applied multiple regression analysis methods. Findings: The results show that free cash flow has a significant and negative effect on overinvestment. It illustrates that higher free cash flow does not encourage a manager to overinvestment. This result support hypothesis 1 (H1). Cash holding affects overinvestment positively and significantly. These results indicate that higher cash holdings inspire managers to overinvestment. These results support hypothesis 2 (H2). Firm performance influences overinvestment negatively and significantly. This result indicates that higher firm performance does not motivate a manager to overinvestment. These results support hypothesis 3 (H3). Originality/Value: Difference from the previous study, this study examines the impact of financial performance, free cash flow, and cash holding on overinvestment in one comprehensive model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The exogenous shock of the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the equity market worldwide; however, the extent of its impact on the sectoral returns varied. Sectors like aviation, hospitality, and retail were badly affected as a result of the imposed lockdowns. Contrarily, the technology, e-commerce, pharmaceutical, and biotech sectors thrived for the same reasons. The present study evaluates the impact of the disruption of COVID-19 on firms from diverse sectors and examines the moderating effect of firms' financial characteristics on sectoral performance. The study establishes a causal relationship between the firm's cumulative abnormal returns generated during the various phases of the pandemic and their sectoral and financial characteristics using data for 317 firms listed on the National Stock Exchange of India. The results indicate that financial characteristics such as cash holdings, dividends, asset tangibility, and analyst coverage moderate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sectoral performance. Findings provide evidence in support of the role of information asymmetry during economic disruptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the impact of mutual fund dual ownership (i.e., simultaneous holdings of stocks and bonds of the same company by mutual fund families) on corporate innovation. Our findings indicate that dual ownership is positively associated with innovation quantity, quality, generality, and originality. This effect is mainly driven by non-index funds, which are more likely to be active monitors. Consequently, both stocks and bonds held by dual owners tend to generate higher returns, particularly for more significant, groundbreaking innovations. These results suggest that mutual fund dual ownership mitigates conflicts of interest between shareholders and creditors, thereby enhancing innovation and firm value. However, the relation between dual ownership and innovation turns negative during the recent financial crisis, suggesting that shareholder-creditor conflicts culminate in extreme financial distress, exacerbating dual holders' risk aversion, and hence, hindering corporate innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from 41 countries, we provide novel empirical evidence that firms' cash holdings are positively associated with their climate change exposure. This evidence is robust to different model specifications and survives a battery of tests to ease concerns related to spurious correlation and omitted variable bias. Using the release of the Stern Review as an exogenous shock to climate change awareness, we show that this association becomes significantly stronger after the release of the Review and particularly so for firms with higher exposure to regulatory and transition risk dimensions of climate change as well as financially constrained firms. Overall, results fit consistently within the precautionary motive framework and suggest that firms hold more cash to safeguard against the adverse impact of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the relationship between closing–opening prices of stocks in the US, UK, and European markets and the prices of stocks in the five Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN-5) markets, a group consisting of five founding members, namely, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. In particular, this study examines the impact of US, UK, and European stock market movements on ASEAN-5 stock markets before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. An autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach was employed on two independent data sets, representing prices of stocks before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results reveal that among the ASEAN-5 markets, only the Philippines had a cointegration relationship with the US, UK, and European markets before the crisis. However, almost all ASEAN-5 markets moved in tandem with the US, UK, and European markets during COVID-19, except for Thailand. These empirical findings also indicate that the stock markets in the two regions tended to co-move during the COVID-19 pandemic, implying a contagion effect. Further, the causality results also provide substantial evidence of contagion between markets during the pandemic. These results imply that the stock markets in ASEAN-5 are susceptible at the opening bell to the behaviour of US, UK, and European stocks. Therefore, investors or traders in ASEAN-5 should participate in foreign markets (other than the US, UK, and Europe) that do not exhibit cointegration relationships to better mitigate and manage risk at the opening bell, especially during a global crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Banks play an important role in channeling funds (about $6-10tn annually) to finance productive investment opportunities. While accepting some interest rate risk is inherent in the banking business, excessive interest rate risk can pose a significant threat to banks' earnings and capital adequacy. [Extracted from the article]

Copyright of Zeszyty Teoretyczne Rachunkowości is the property of Stowarzyszenie Ksiegowych w Polsce Rada Naukowa and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper examines whether the cultural background of chief executive officers (CEOs) affects corporate cash holdings. Using UK data from 2000 to 2018, we find that CEOs with a cultural background that emphasises power distance and uncertainty avoidance are positively associated with corporate cash holdings, while CEOs with a cultural background that emphasises masculinity are negatively associated with corporate cash holdings. Our results are robust to various robustness tests. Further analyses show that the impact is more pronounced when power is concentrated among top executives, when the CEOs have a degree of discretion in pursuing their own goals, and when information asymmetry is high. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the effect of international regulations governing the market for corporate control (MCC) on firm risk‐taking using the staggered enactment of country‐level merger and acquisition (M&A) laws of 34 countries. Consistent with the theoretical argument of deterrence, we show that the MCC leads to unintended consequences by discouraging value‐relevant corporate risk‐taking. Our investigation of real earnings management suggests that the MCC induces real earnings smoothing and also provides evidence of short‐termism. This reduction in corporate risk‐taking is associated with a decrease in real investments, an increase in cash‐holding, an increase in debt employment, and a propensity to diversify in M&A. Further examination of the heterogeneous effect of the quality of national governance institutions on the relationship between the MCC and risk‐taking shows that the country‐level investor protection and transparency levels positively moderate the effect of the MCC. Our study highlights that there could be complementary roles played by national institutional features and the MCC in encouraging value‐relevant corporate risk‐taking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cash and voucher assistance (CVA) has been gaining traction among humanitarian organizations as the preferred aid modality in disaster relief and complex emergencies. While the advantages of cash are well documented, the ongoing digitalization of cash and the emergence of innovative financial instruments can be associated with new operational challenges and a stagnation in innovation. This paper reflects on the changing environment in CVA as a result of technological breakthroughs in the global financial system. The concept of humanitarian innovation is introduced to differentiate it from a similar process in the private sector and to investigate factors, contributing to a slower pace of acceptance, a reluctant implementation, or a complete rejection of innovative approaches in the humanitarian organization. The purpose of the study is to conceptualize the challenges of new technology adoption and scaling, as well as to analyze the direction and current stage of the diffusion of innovation in the humanitarian sphere. Ten interviews with informants representing humanitarian agencies and the private sector were conducted to discuss their experiences with new CVA tools and perspectives on innovation in cash and voucher assistance. The results demonstrate that there is no uniform perception of innovation across the field, and the challenges of diffusion can be associated with several domains, including internal and external capacities, inherent characteristics of new financial technology (fintech), and a wider social, political, and regulatory context. According to the cyclical model of technological change, the innovative CVA fintech is currently at the ferment stage characterized by a high level of uncertainty and competition. The subsequent emergence of several dominant designs followed by incremental innovation is plausible in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the study is to examine the impact of financial constraints and financial distress on cash holdings, both in normal and crisis times. We collected the 4,406 firm-year observations of companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE). Our research shows that companies maintain higher cash holdings during a crisis than in a normal period. However, in contrast to our expectations, companies with financial difficulties (constraints and distress) have lower cash holdings both in normal and crisis times. The originality of our research lies in realizing that different sources of difficulties might overlap at the same time (external with internal). We also analyze how cash holdings react to a combined impact of difficulties of different natures (external and internal). We believe that cash holdings have recently increased their meaning as we face the situation of constant and increasing uncertainty: still ongoing COVID-19 crisis prolonged with Russian aggression on Ukraine and outburst of inflation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cash ownership emits a powerful positive signal. We examine four sources of cash in firms, i.e., cash flows, cash holdings, cash proceeds from debt, and cash proceeds from equity. We examine the effects of cash ownership for firms growing by disruption, and firms growing by acquisition. Information signaling theory maintains that free cash flows may be used to increase shareholder wealth. Two-stage least squares regressions determined the impact of cash funding on disruptors and size of acquisition in the first stage, and cash-funded disruption or cash-funded acquisition in the second stage, for a US sample of 832 disruptor firms and 924 acquirers, from 2000–2020. Disruptions funded by cash holdings, cash flow, and cash proceeds from debt, significantly increased stock returns. A size effect was observed, with small disruptors showing significant effects. Acquisitions funded by cash holdings, cash flow, and cash proceeds from debt, significantly increased stock returns and return on assets. Agency costs significantly reduced returns and profits. Results for disruptions and acquisitions support signaling theory with free cash flows signaling higher share prices for both disruptors and acquirers, and higher profits for acquirers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study reexamines the impact of institutional development on corporate cash holdings. Our findings confirm that institutional development has a negative effect on corporate cash holdings, which may be partially explained by the financial constraint mitigation effect of institutional development. Our empirical evidence also shows that the corruption index, used as a proxy for the grabbing hand effect, does not mediate the negative effect of institutional development on corporate cash holdings. Furthermore, the impact of institutional development on corporate cash holdings is not significant for large firms and state‐owned enterprises. These results are robust to different measures of cash holdings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the impact of COVID‐19 on US corporate cash holdings. Our findings suggest that greater pandemic exposure is associated with higher corporate cash holdings and that firms learn from prior experiences as they manage their cash policies. More specifically, the level of cash holdings in firms that experienced severe financial constraints during the 2008 credit crisis and firms with prior severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and H1N1 exposure is significantly lower than that of firms with no prior epidemic or financial constraints experience. Overall, our findings support the learning behaviour of cash and contribute to corporate cash holdings literature by providing insights on the extent to which firms learn from prior experiences to manage their liquidity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction/Main Objectives: This research aims to examine the effects of cash holdings on a firm’s R&D intensity. We further examine how that relationship may be varied across different controlling shareholders. For robustness reasons, we test it in a developing market and a developed market. Background Problems: Economics and business theories state that research and development (R&D) is susceptible to financing constraints due to the lack of collateral value and asymmetric information issues. This argument has been extensively debated with no consensus being reached. Therefore current study focuses on the examination of R&D and cash holding and the role of controlling shareholders. Novelty: The current study considers the importance of controlling shareholders on the relationship between cash holding and R&D intensity. We expect that different controlling shareholders will have different constraints on R&D financing. Research Methods: This study focuses on a sample of public listed companies in Malaysia and Singapore from the year 2012 to 2018, and estimates the model under a two-step GMM panel regression to eliminate the endogeneity issue. Finding/Results: The results show that cash holdings have significant effects on the intensity of R&D. However, that relationship is different across countries and across controlling shareholders. Malaysia’s foreign firms will increase their R&D’s intensity when their cash holdings are high. Meanwhile, Singaporean family firms will reduce the intensity of their R&D when their cash holdings are high. Overall the findings confirm the hypothetical alignment of the agency theory and also the resource-based view theory. Conclusion: Our findings surmise that higher cash holdings cause a lower R&D intensity due to the cash management decisions by managers. A firm with high leverage tends to reduce its R&D intensity when cash holdings are high, and vice versa. This behavior can be found in all the controlling shareholders [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research study examines the mediating role of cash holdings between the economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and corporate leverage relationship. Using stepwise regression analysis and annual firm-level data of 2,534 U.S. firms listed at NYSE over 1995–2018, we provide novel evidence that cash holdings significantly and partially mediate the EPU-leverage relationship, accounting for a 10.72% increase in the corporate leverage during EPU. We discover that the mediating role of cash holdings between EPU and leverage is sensitive to firm-level heterogeneity. Also, the mediating effect of cash holdings remains significant based on long- and short-term leverage. Finally, our findings are robust to outliers' effect, alternate EPU measurement, endogeneity concerns and sample-selection bias. The findings of this study highlighted the role of firm cash holdings in a firm's leverage decision during economic uncertainty and recommends increasing debt financing to incentivize value-increasing decisions and mitigate agency problems by reducing the cost of free cash flows. Policymakers should be aware of public and private firms' challenges during high EPU. As we showed in this study, firms have to adjust their financial decisions during high economic uncertainty. Also, the study suggests that policymakers should maintain economic policies to avoid external shocks that may force firms to adjust their financial decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the motives of corporations in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries to hold cash with a focus on institutional characteristics related to the threat of political extraction. Using firm-level financial data and macro-level and institutional data and applying the GMM estimation method, the study finds that corruption (a proxy of the threat of political extraction) is positively related to cash holdings which suggests that the risk of political extraction induces GCC firms to accumulate cash to make political payoffs and preserve their financial flexibility. In terms of firm-level characteristics, GCC firms follow a pecking order as they deplete more cash the larger their capital expenditures. In addition, GCC firms save cash for transaction and precautionary purposes as indicated by the negative relation between cash and cash substitutes. This is the first study to examine the threat of political extraction on cash holdings using the context of the GCC, a cash-rich region with unique institutional settings. The findings on the GCC countries contribute to the ongoing debate regarding the political extraction-cash holdings relationship by examining a context under which corruption is likely to exert a positive impact on the level of cash holdings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The level of cash held by listed companies has raised academic interest. In particular, many studies have been conducted to understand the reason why companies hold so much cash. Previous studies on the determinants of cash holdings have focused on firm-specific characteristics. More recently, researchers have found that stock liquidity played an important role in explaining the cash holding behaviour. This study examines the effect of stock liquidity on cash holdings among listed companies in Malaysia. The findings indicate that stock liquidity has a positive impact on cash holdings. This suggests that companies have a higher propensity to hold cash to repurchase its own stocks, which resulted in higher stock liquidity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses presidential elections as the proxy for political uncertainties to investigate the impact of election induced political uncertainties on the relationship between cash holdings and firm value for a sample of non-financial firms from the U.S. The findings suggest that the impact of cash holdings on firm value goes down significantly during the years of presidential elections. This finding, however, is confined only to elections in which both presidential candidates are new and for firms headquartered in the states that have always voted for the Democrat candidates in the presidential elections. Furthermore, our findings suggest that the impact of political uncertainties on the relationship between cash holdings and firm value does not hold for gubernatorial elections. Our results are robust after including number of firm-specific and country-specific control variables and after taking into account potential endogeneity concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our paper investigates how economic policy uncertainty (EPU) affects Singaporean-listed firms' corporate cash holdings after the global financial crisis. We apply various technical analyses for panel models of 4,253 yearly observations. Our results indicate that the Singaporean-listed firms' cash holdings ratio (CHR) decreases when Singapore's EPU increases in the period 2009-2018. Further, either global EPU or U.S. EPU indicators are correlated negatively with Singaporean-listed firms' cash reserves. The corporate managers' precautionary motive was not urged by the rise of EPU in the Singapore market. On the other hand, our empirical evidence suggests that Singapore's corporate managers have an explicit speculative incentive in the context of the increased EPU in the post-financial crisis period. This research provides evidence that is at odds with the corporate managers' classical view on precautionary cash savings in the context of the increased uncertainty of economic policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We document a positive relation between firm‐specific investor sentiment (FSIS) and the value of cash. We also show that FSIS has a stronger positive effect on the value of cash than the value of other types of assets, suggesting that our finding is not a simple reflection of firm‐level overvaluation. Our finding is robust to alternative measures of change in cash, different cash regimes, FSIS measured by order imbalance, news sentiment and the tone of earnings conference call transcripts and controlling for market‐wide sentiment, institutional monitoring, corporate governance and endogeneity. Cross‐sectional analyses suggest that the positive relation between FSIS and the value of cash is stronger for firms with better future growth opportunities, larger investment, more innovation activities, higher information asymmetry and more liquid stocks. Overall, our paper sheds light on the important role of FSIS in corporate outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research background: In the digital era, digital transformation has become a strategic imperative for leadership agenda. Many firms have accelerated their pace in digital transformation to improve their performance and competitiveness. Despite increasing attention in the literature on the role of digital transformation in firms' operations, understanding the effect of digital trans formation on corporate finance remains limited. This study focuses on cash holdings, which are essential for firms to survive and thrive. Purpose of the article: The aim of this paper is to examine the critical role of digital transformation on the cash holdings of listed firms in China and provide micro evidence regarding the economic consequences of the digital economy from firm level. This study also aims to deepen our understanding of the influence of digital transformation on firms' operation and financial policy. Additionally, this paper attempts to provide relevant guidance for implementing policies to promote digital transformation and devise corresponding cash holding strategies. Methods: The text analysis method is used to measure the degree of digital transformation of China's A-share listed companies. The sample covers 19,337 observations from 2007-2020. A multiple regression model with firm and year fixed effect is developed to investigate the relationship between digital transformation and corporate cash holdings. In the robustness test, this paper substitutes the independent and dependent variables, and adopts instrumental variable estimation method. In the mechanism test, this paper uses the sub-sample regression method in the mechanism test. Findings & value added: This study reveals that digital transformation can significantly reduce corporate cash holdings by alleviating the precautionary motive, agency motive and transaction motive of cash holdings. Further analysis shows that the negative effect of digital transformation on cash holdings is more profound in high-tech firms and non-state-owned enterprises. The methodology applied in this paper can be used in other economic research of firms. This study provides insights into the effects of digital transformation on corporate financial policy. This provides a solution for reducing firms' cash holdings. This study also deepens the understanding of digital transformation from a corporate perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is an attempt to review relevant literature on the theme of corporate real investment decisions. We have conducted a comprehensive survey of literature on the studies published in well-reputed journals of finance, i.e., The Journal of Finance, The Review of Financial Studies, and The Journal of Financial Economics, during the years 2010 to 2022. The theoretical analysis reveals that information asymmetry, cash holdings, policy uncertainty, idiosyncratic risk, governance quality, financing diversification, financial development, managerial network, investor protection, tax policy, etc., are prominent factors influencing investment decisions. The current review analysis is useful and has certain policy implications for investment managers regarding investment decisions. It guides on the factors that can impede or boost investment volume. Our study has a novel contribution to the literature by summarizing the voluminous empirical literature arranged on physical investment decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the role of the country- and firm-level governance practices on the relationship between excess-cash and firm value in ASEAN-5 markets. Using the Generalized Method of Moment models and a sample of 578 firms from 2010 to 2020 the study finds that excess-cash reduces firm value, indicating high agency costs and low firm value. However, excess-cash motivated by managerial ownership, founder CEO, board independence, shareholder rights and creditor rights increase firm value while excess-cash due to managerial entrenchment and CEODuality reduce firm value. In the sub-sample analyses the study finds that entrenched managers and board size play a less effective role in wasting excess-cash in low-excess-cash firms while independent directors play a higher monitoring role in high-excess-cash firms. In addition, governance at the country-level is more effective than at the firmlevel in improving the value of excess-cash in large firms. The study offers unique evidence on the relationship between excess-cash and firm value by integrating corporate governance practices at the firm- and country-levels. The research aids practitioners, academics, policymakers and investors in developing the best liquidity policies to enhance business performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]