scholarly journals Are Excess Cash Holdings More Valuable to Firms in Times of Crisis? Financial Constraints and Governance Matters

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanhao Chang ◽  
Karen L. Benson ◽  
Robert W. Faff
2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 630-639 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone Terzani ◽  
Giovanni Liberatore

In this paper, we examine the marginal value of extra liquidity for a sample of excess cash listed companies (i.e. ECs) operating in the five largest E.U. economies (France, Italy, Germany, Spain and UK). After had shown that these companies are generally penalised by the market, in line with previous literature, we show that extra cash held is not detrimental to shareholder value when it is combined with high investment opportunities leading, hence, in a premium of 1€ extra held. This relation is even stronger during the financial crisis of 2008. These results confirm that the main reason why ECs are generally valued less by the market is the concern that their managers may deploy excess cash in value-destroying activities. However, EC firms are not penalized ceteris paribus when there are investment opportunities. In addition, such relation is stronger with the presence of financial constraints and lack of liquidity, as explained by the transaction and precautionary motive for holding cash.


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.


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