The Savings of Corporate Giants

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Darmouni, Olivier; Mota, Lira
• 署名单位: Columbia University; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF FINANCIAL STUDIES
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0893-9454
• DOI: 10.1093/rfs/hhae030
• 发表日期: 2024
• 页码: 3024
• 关键词: US FIRMS HOLD; financial constraints; Repatriation taxes; market power; cash; rise; multinationals; INVESTMENT; DYNAMICS; POLICY

摘要

We construct a novel panel data set to provide new evidence on how the largest nonfinancial firms manage their financial assets. Our granular data show that, over the past decade, bond portfolios have grown to be at least as large as cash-like instruments, driven by the meteoric rise of corporate bond holdings. To shed light on the drivers of this growth, we conduct a pair of event studies around the 2017 tax reform and the 2020 liquidity crisis. We find that large holdings of marketable securities are primarily driven by cross-border tax incentives, while cash-like instruments are driven by liquidity motives. (JEL G32, G35, G11, E440)