Corporate cash holdings: Evidence from a different institutional setting

This paper investigates the determinants of Swiss non-financial firms’ cash holdings over the 1995 to 2004 period. The median Swiss firm holds almost twice as much cash and cash equivalents as the median UK or US firm. Our results indicate that there is a negative relationship between asset tangibility and cash holdings and a non-linear relationship between leverage and cash holdings. Dividend payments are positively related to cash reserves. However, there is no robust impact of firm size on cash. We also cannot detect a significantly positive relationship between growth opportunities (measured by the marketto- book ratio) and cash holdings, suggesting that the financing hierarchy theory is of little importance for the liquidity planning of Swiss firms. Dynamic panel estimation reveals that Swiss firms adjust their cash holdings only slowly towards an endogenous target cash ratio. Looking at a firm’s corporate governance structure, we reveal a non-linear relationship between managerial ownership and cash holdings, indicating an incentive alignment effect and an opposing effect related to increasing risk aversion. Finally, our results indicate that firms where the CEO at the same time serves as the COB hold significantly more cash.Cash holdings, corporate governance, dynamic adjustment.

The fate of orbitons coupled to phonons

The key feature of an orbital wave or orbiton is a significant dispersion, which arises from exchange interactions between orbitals on distinct sites. We study the effect of a coupling between orbitons and phonons in one dimension using continuous unitary transformations (CUTs). Already for intermediate values of the coupling, the orbiton band width is strongly reduced and the spectral density is dominated by an orbiton-phonon continuum. However, we find sharp features within the continuum and an orbiton-phonon anti-bound state above. Both show a significant dispersion and should be observable experimentally.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures; strongly enlarged, comprehensive revised version according to the referees' suggestions, in pres

Compliance-Prüfung nach dem IDW EPS 980 – Pflicht oder Kür für den Aufsichtsrat?

Compliance ist originär Managementaufgabe und liegt damit in der Verantwortung des Vorstandes bzw. der Geschäftsführung. Naheliegend ist, dass dem Aufsichtsrat als Überwachungsorgan eine Rolle im Rahmen der Compliance-Prüfung zukommt. Anlässlich der Veröffentlichung des Entwurfs für einen Prüfungsstandard – Grundsätze ordnungsgemäßer Prüfung von Compliance Management Systemen (IDW EPS 980) – des Instituts der Wirtschaftsprüfer sollen in diesem Beitrag drei Aspekte dieses Themas erörtert werden. Erstens soll das Verhältnis von Leitung und Überwachung im Compliance-Management behandelt und dabei auch die Rolle des Aufsichtsrates geklärt werden. Zweitens wird das Thema der Compliance-Prüfung in Grundzügen diskutiert und drittens der neue Prüfungsstandard des IDW knapp vorgestellt und wesentliche Anforderungen einer kritischen Beurteilung unterzogen

Spin-Waves in the Mid-Infrared Spectrum of Antiferromagnetic YBa2_2Cu3_3O6.0_{6.0}

The mid-infrared spin-wave spectrum of antiferromagnetic YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{6.0}$\ was determined by infrared transmission and reflection measurements (\bbox{k} \!\! \parallel c) at $T\!=\!10\!$~K.\@ Excitation of single magnons of the optical branch was observed at $E_{\text{op}}\!=\!178.0\!$~meV.\@ Two further peaks at $346\!$~meV ($\approx\!1.94\,E_{\text{op}}$) and $470\!$~meV ($\approx\!2.6\,E_{\text{op}}$) both belong to the two-magnon spectrum. Linear spin wave theory is in good agreement with the measured two-magnon spectrum, and allows to determine the exchange constant $J$ to be about $120\!$~meV, whereas the intrabilayer coupling $J_{12}$ is approximately $0.55\,J$.Comment: 3 figures in uuencoded for