The Evolution of Corporate Cash

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Graham, John R.; Leary, Mark T.
• 署名单位: Duke University; National Bureau of Economic Research; Washington University (WUSTL)
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF FINANCIAL STUDIES
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0893-9454
• DOI: 10.1093/rfs/hhy075
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: 4288
• 关键词: US FIRMS HOLD; financial constraints; determinants; INVESTMENT; governance; Dividends; demand

摘要

We study time-series and cross-firm variation in corporate cash holdings from 1920 to 2014. The recent increase in cash is not unique in magnitude. However, the recent divergence between average and aggregate cash is new and entirely driven by a shift in cash policies of newly public firms, whereas within-firm changes have been negative or flat since the 1940s. Cross-sectional relations between cash holdings and firm characteristics are stable throughout the century, though characteristics explain little of the trends in aggregate cash. Macroeconomic conditions, corporate profitability and investment, and (since 2000) repatriation taxes explain aggregate cash over the last century.