scholarly journals Share Pledging and Firm Cash Holdings: Evidence from Chinese A-share Listed Firms

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 41
Author(s):  
Hongmei Xu

This paper examines the relation between share pledging and cash holdings of Chinese A-share listed-firms. We find that during the years 2005 through 2015, the level of share pledging is negatively associated with cash holdings. We establish causality through a variety of econometric techniques, including a difference-in-differences approach based on a regulatory change that permits security companies to lend money to borrowers pledging their shares as collaterals. In addition, we find that the main effect is more prominent for financial constrained firms, and share pledging is associated with lower cash/investment-cash flow sensitivities and more cash dividend payouts. Overall, our findings indicate that share pledging can alleviate financial constraints of listed firms and reduce their tendencies of holding cash for precautionary motives.

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-97
Author(s):  
Ghulam Ayehsa Siddiqua ◽  
Ajid ur Rehman ◽  
Shahzad Hussain

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the asymmetric adjustment of cash holdings in Pakistani firms for above and below target firms. Design/methodology/approach The study employs generalized method of moments (GMM) to investigate the adjustment of cash holdings. Findings The study found that the firms which hold cash above the optimal level of cash holdings have higher speed of adjustment than the firms which hold cash below the optimal level. Financially constrained (FC) firms also adjust their cash holdings faster than financially unconstrained (FUC) firms but high speed of downward adjustment does not remain persistent after financial constraints are controlled. Findings of this study reveal this asymmetric adjustment in above and below target firms and extend these results in FC and FUC Pakistani listed firms, respectively. Research limitations/implications The conclusion of this study has been derived under certain limitations. There is a vast space to extend this study in different dimensions. Firms operating in capital-intensive industries may provide different results for financial constraints because their policy designing would be quite different from other firms. Originality/value This study contributes to cash holdings research in Pakistan by exploring the adjustment behavior of cash holdings across Pakistani non-financial firms using econometric modeling. Downward adjustment rate is supposed to be higher than upward adjustment rate and this rate is tested using dynamic panel data model. Similarly, it is inferred that this relationship holds for above target firms even after including the financial constraints in the presented model.


2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 943-958 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johnson Worlanyo Ahiadorme ◽  
Agyapomaa Gyeke-Dako ◽  
Joshua Yindenaba Abor

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of debt holdings on the sensitivity of firms’ investment to availability of internal funds. Design/methodology/approach For a panel data set of 27 Ghanaian listed firms for the period 2007–2013, the paper applies the Euler equation approach to the empirical modeling of investment. Findings The study finds support for the assertion that listed firms face less severe corporate control problems and lower financing constraints, and thus, have lower investment cash flow sensitivities. The study also finds that a significant positive sensitivity of investment to internal funds is associated with firms that have high debt holdings. Practical implications An implication of this study is that firms with high debt holdings face greater challenges in accessing external finance. These firms are likely to experience under-investment which at a macro level would translate into lower investments and economic growth for the country. Originality/value Empirical literature document that in the presence of market imperfections, investments of financially constrained firms become sensitive to the availability of internal finance. There are also contradictory evidences regarding the pattern of the observed investment cash flow sensitivity. This study examines the effect of debt holdings on the sensitivity of firms’ investment to availability of cash flow. This is yet to be empirically tested despite some theoretical explanations.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yogesh Chauhan ◽  
Rajesh Pathak

PurposeThe paper examines how earnings transparency affects dividend payouts for Indian firms. The authors also explore the channels through which earnings transparency affects dividend payouts.Design/methodology/approachThe authors employ panel data estimation with fixed effects to examine the role of earnings transparency on dividend payouts. The authors also use path analysis to explore causation. The paper uses a sample of more than 2000 Indian listed firms, over the period 2001–2016.FindingsThe authors report that firms showing grater earning transparency pay more cash dividend. Their results do not support the signaling hypothesis about the dividend. However, these results provide explicit support to the theory that corporate dividend policy is an outcome of information asymmetry. Moreover, the path analysis reveals the effect of earnings transparency on corporate payout through the financial constraint channel. The results are robust to idiosyncratic controls; alternate measures of payout; alternate models; endogeneity concerns; and the alternate channel of returning money to stockholders.Practical implicationsManagers should also examine earnings transparency while formulating an adequate dividend policy for their firms. This study also helps investors to identify dividend-paying stocks.Originality/valueThis study particularly contributes to the literature examining the effect of earnings quality on dividend payouts through its effect on financial constraints. We, therefore, connect two streams of research that contemplate the relation between accounting-based information variables and dividend payouts and the relationship between financial constraints and dividend payouts. Moreover, using path analysis uniquely, the authors provide evidence on the relative importance of both the direct and the indirect link.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (13) ◽  
pp. 3717 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nana Liu ◽  
Chuanzhe Liu ◽  
Quan Guo ◽  
Bowen Da ◽  
Linna Guan ◽  
...  

A prominent claim within the literature is that corporate social responsibility-disclosured firms are fundamentally more resilient to financial shocks, relative to firms that take no corporate social responsibility action. To test this, we examine the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) information disclosure on financial constraints (FC). Our sample is composed of A-share publicly listed firms from Shanghai and Shenzhen in China during 2013–2017. We find that CSR disclosure influences negatively financial constraints. The quantile regression results also indicate that the influences would more obvious when a company faces stronger financial constraints. Further, CSR disclosure influences negatively financial constraints in financially opaque firms, and the effect of financial opaque on the relationship strengthens when the company faces great financial constraints. After considering the problems of missing variables and endogenous, changing the level of CSR and FC measurement, using 2SLS and two-step GMM methods, the conclusion is still robust. However, the results should not be generalized, since the sample was based on 434 A-share publicly listed firms for 2013–2017. From the perspective of FC, this study contributes to the literature in the field of CSR and expands the empirical research on the economic consequences of CSR. It also can encourage enterprises to voluntarily disclose social responsibility information and it is of great significance to promote the stable development of the capital market and society.


2006 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 787-808 ◽  
Author(s):  
Inder K. Khurana ◽  
Xiumin Martin ◽  
Raynolde Pereira

AbstractPrior research posits that market imperfections and the lack of institutions that protect investor interests create a divergence between the cost of internal and external funds, thereby constraining firms' ability to fund investment projects through external financing. Financial constraints force firms to manage their cash flows to finance potentially profitable projects. A related stream of research documents that financial constraints due to costly external financing are more pronounced in underdeveloped financial markets. We examine the influence of financial development on the demand for liquidity by focusing on how financial development affects the sensitivity of firms' cash holdings to their cash flows. Using firm-level data for 35 countries covering about 12,782 firms for the years 1994–2002, we find the sensitivity of cash holdings to cash flows decreases with financial development. We also consider additional implications of firms' cash flow sensitivity of cash with respect to firm size and business cycles. Overall, we provide new cross-country evidence of the role of financial development on financial constraints.


2019 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tarik Dogru ◽  
Arun Upneja

Expansion through franchising could help restaurant firms solve financial constraints, but it could also make overinvestment easier for misaligned CEOs. Whereas the former topic has been extensively examined, the latter has received scant attention from researchers. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether franchising alleviates financial constraints or leads to overinvestment problems in restaurant firms. For this purpose, we analyzed and compared investment–cash flow sensitivities between constrained and unconstrained; franchising and nonfranchising; constrained, franchising and unconstrained, franchising; and constrained, nonfranchising and unconstrained, nonfranchising restaurant firms. The results show that unlike other industries, unconstrained restaurant firms depend more on cash flows for investment than constrained restaurant firms do. Although investment–cash flow sensitivity in nonfranchising restaurant firms was similar to that of firms in other industries, unconstrained restaurant firms that expand through franchising rely more on cash flows. These findings suggest that restaurant firms’ expansion through franchising is likely to increase overinvestment problems. Franchising could serve as a long-term method of financing for financially constrained firms as well as a short-term financing tool. However, unconstrained, franchising firms should distribute their excess cash flows to shareholders. Theoretical implications are discussed within the realms of the franchising, pecking order, and free cash flow theories.


Author(s):  
Charlotte Ostergaard ◽  
Amir Sasson ◽  
Bent E. Sorensen

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (02) ◽  
pp. 1750009 ◽  
Author(s):  
ABDUL RASHID ◽  
MARYAM ASHFAQ

This paper empirically investigates whether the sensitivity of cash to its firm-specific determinants differs across financially constrained and unconstrained firms. We sort out firm-year observations as financially constrained and unconstrained based on the median value of three alternative measures: the firm size, dividend payout ratio, and Whited and Wu (WW) index. In order to mitigate the problem of endogeneity and to take into account the dynamic nature of the panel dataset, we apply the robust two-step system-GMM estimator on unbalanced annual panel dataset covering the period 2001–2013. The results suggest that financially constrained firms (FCFs) decrease their cash holdings with size, leverage, and the payout ratio, while they increase their cash amounts with both the market-to-book value and the cash flow volatility. On the other hand, for financially unconstrained firms (FUCFs), we show that there is a positive relationship between cash holdings and firm size, the payout ratio, and the market-to-book value, while both the cash flow volatility and leverage are negatively related to cash holdings. These asymmetries in the sensitivity of cash to its determinants are robust across all the three measures of financial constraints used in the study.


2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 251-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tae-Nyun Kim

Purpose – This paper aims to propose several factors which can explain the negative relationship between financial constraints and investment-cash flow sensitivity. Design/methodology/approach – The author uses traditional fixed effects model and minimum distance panel estimation by Erickson and Whited (2000) to estimate investment-cash flow sensitivity in the cash flow-augmented investment equation. In addition, principal component analysis is used to construct a financial constraints measure. Findings – First, it was found that substitutability between cash holdings and free cash flow can partially explain why financially constrained firms do not depend on cash flow as heavily as we expect. Second, it was confirmed that the level of net external financing can also partially explain the investment-cash flow sensitivity puzzle. Furthermore, it was argued that the influence of cash holdings and external financing on investment-cash flow sensitivity is caused by the low level of internal cash flow for financially constrained firms. This argument is supported by our findings from an examination of investment-cash flow sensitivity for bank-dependent firms during the recession periods. Originality/value – This paper contributes to the literature by suggesting possible partial explanations for the contradictory relationship between investment-cash flow sensitivity and financial constraints.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document