International evidence on the non-linear impact of leverage on corporate cash holdings

This paper investigates cash holding behaviour of firms from France, Germany, Japan, the UK and the US using data for 4069 companies over the period 1996–2000. Our focus is particularly on the relation between cash holdings and leverage. We argue that the impact of leverage on cash balances of firms is likely to be non-monotonic. To the extent that leverage of firms acts as a proxy for their ability to issue debt one would expect a negative (substitution effect) relation between leverage and cash holdings. However, as leverage increases firms are likely to accumulate larger cash reserves to minimise the risk of financial distress and costly bankruptcy. Thus, one would expect a positive (precautionary effect) relationship between cash holdings and leverage at high levels of leverage. Our findings provide strong and robust support for a significant non-linear relation between cash holdings and leverage. Additionally, our results show that the impact of leverage on cash holdings partly depends on country-specific characteristics such as the degree of creditor protection, shareholder protection, and ownership concentration

The second moments matter: The response of bank lending behavior to macroeconomic uncertainty

In this paper we investigate whether macroeconomic uncertainty could distort banks’ allocation of loanable funds. To provide a road- map for our empirical investigation, we present a simple framework which demonstrates that lower uncertainty about the return from lending should lead to a more unequal distribution of lending across banks as managers take advantage of more precise knowledge of different lending opportunities. When bank-specific differences in lending opportunities are harder to predict, we should observe less cross-sectional variation in loan-to-asset ratios. Using a comprehensive U.S. commercial bank data set, we receive support for our hypothesis.Bank lending, financial intermediation, credit, macroeconomic, uncertainty, panel data, ARCH.

The second moments matter: The response of bank lending behaviour to macroeconomic uncertainty

This paper investigates whether variations in macroeconomic uncertainty distort banks' allocation of loanable funds by affecting the predictability of banks' returns from lending. Low levels of macroeconomic uncertainty will allow bankers to base their lending decisions on more accurate evaluations of different lending opportunities, leading to a more unequal distribution of lending across banks. Contrarily, increased macroeconomic uncertainty will hinder bankers ability to identify and channel funds towards the best opportunities, including more similar lending behaviour across banks. Our empirical analysis provides support for the hypothesis that macroeconomic uncertainty adversely affects the efficient allocation of loanable banks.

The Impact of Macroeconomic Uncertainty on Bank Lending Behavior

bank lending, macroeconomic uncertainty, panel data, ARCH

The Impact of Macroeconomic Uncertainty on Cash Holdings for Non-Financial Firms

This paper investigates the effects of macroeconomic volatility on nonfinancial firms cash holding behavior. Using an augmented cash bufferstock model, we demonstrate that an increase in macroeconomic volatility will cause the crosssectional distribution of firms cashtoasset ratios to narrow. We test this prediction on a panel of nonfinancial firms drawn from the annual COMPUSTAT database covering the period 19572000, and find that as macroeconomic uncertainty increases, firms behave more homogeneously. Our results are shown to be robust to the inclusion of the levels of several macroeconomic factors. --Cash holdings,macroeconomic uncertainty,time series,ARCH,nonfinancial Firms.

The Impact of Macroeconomic Uncertainty onNon-Financial Firms’ Demandf or Liquidity

This paper empirically investigates whether changes in macroeconomic volatility affect the effcient allocation of non-financial firms' liquid assets. We argue that higher uncertainty will hamper managers' ability to accurately predict firm-specific information and induce them to implement similar cash management policies. Contrarily, when the macroeconomic environment becomes more tranquil, each manger will have the latitude to behave more idiosyncratically as she can adjust liquid assets based on the specific requirements of the firm, bringing about a more efficient allocation of liquid assets. Our empirical analysis provides support for these predictions.

The Impact of Macroeconomic Uncertainty on Cash Holdings for Non–Financial Firms

This paper investigates the effects of macroeconomic volatility on non–financial firms’ cash holding behavior. Using an augmented cash buffer–stock model, we demonstrate that an increase in macroeconomic volatility will cause the cross–sectional distribution of firms’ cash–to–asset ratios to narrow. We test this prediction on a panel of non–financial firms drawn from the annual COMPUSTAT database covering the period 1970–2000, and find that as macroeconomic uncertainty increases, firms behave more homogeneously. Our results are shown to be robust to the inclusion of the levels of several macroeconomic factors.Cash holdings; macroeconomic uncertainty; panel data; time series; ARCH; non-financial firms

R&D investments and credit lines

Using data for 939 publicly listed firms from 17 European countries over the period from 2004 to 2013, we investigate the effect of used credit lines on R&D investments, controlling for other determinants of R&D investments, i.e., cash flows, cash holdings, sales growth, equity financing, and Tobin’s Q. Our estimation results, based on the system-GMM method, show that used credit lines have a positive and significant impact on R&D investments. In addition, we find that this impact is more pronounced for small and young firms than for large and mature firms. These results show that firms use credit lines as part of their liquidity management tools for supporting their R&D investments. Finally, we provide evidence that European firms in bank-based countries increased their use of credit lines for financing their R&D investments during the financial crisis of 2007-2009, while the link between R&D investments and used credit lines became weaker during the European sovereign debt crisis of 2010-2013

Employment Protection Laws and Corporate Cash Holdings

We study how employment protection laws (EPLs) affect corporate cash-holding decision. By exploiting within-country changes in EPLs across 20 OECD countries as a source of variation in labor adjustment costs, we show that following an increase in the stringency of EPLs, firms’ cash holdings increase significantly. This relationship is stronger for firms with high labor turnover, no multinational presence, or financial constraints, indicating that labor adjustment cost raising distress risk is the mechanism in play. Cash buffers created by firms faced with stricter EPLs help them mitigate the under investment problem in subsequent episodes of industry-wide distress. Consistent with this precautionary motive, the market’s valuation of excess cash is positively associated with the EPL strictness. We further demonstrate that the response of cash policy to changes in EPLs is distinct from that of debt policy or investment policy. Our evidence highlights the role of interaction between labor market and financial frictions in determining the level and the value of corporate cash