JOURNAL OF APPLIED BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS
Managerial Incentives and Corporate Cash Holdings
Author(s): Tracy Xu, Bo Han
Citation: Tracy Xu, Bo Han, (2013) "Managerial Incentives and Corporate Cash Holdings," Journal of Applied Business and Economics, Vol. 14, Iss. 1, pp. 72-85
Article Type: Research paper
Publisher: North American Business Press
Abstract:
We examine the impact of managerial incentive on firms’ cash holdings policy. We find that firms with
more equity-based compensation have more cash reserves. We also find that managers with equity-based
compensation strongly prefer internal investment through R&D and capital expenditures. Furthermore,
we find that firms with both high cash and high equity-based compensation subsequently experience
higher operating performance. The results suggest that higher cash reserves in firms with higher equitybased
compensation are the result of a decision by managers to provide flexibility to fund profitable
projects, rather than wasting it, which improves firm value through increasing future profitability.