IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jbfnac/v35y2008i1-2p127-149.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

On the Determinants of SME Cash Holdings: Evidence from Spain

Author

Listed:
  • Pedro J. García‐Teruel
  • Pedro Martínez‐Solano

Abstract

This work analyses the factors that might explain the level of cash holdings in a sample of 860 small and medium‐sized firms from Spain during the period 1996–2001. The empirical results show that firms have a target cash level to which they attempt to converge. The level of this target is higher for firms with more growth opportunities and larger cash flows. In contrast, the target level for cash holdings falls when the use of bank debt and the presence of substitutes for cash increase. Moreover, when the interest rates in the economy increase firms reduce their cash holding.

Suggested Citation

  • Pedro J. García‐Teruel & Pedro Martínez‐Solano, 2008. "On the Determinants of SME Cash Holdings: Evidence from Spain," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(1‐2), pages 127-149, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:jbfnac:v:35:y:2008:i:1-2:p:127-149
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-5957.2007.02022.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5957.2007.02022.x
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1468-5957.2007.02022.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Berger, Allen N. & Klapper, Leora F. & Udell, Gregory F., 2001. "The ability of banks to lend to informationally opaque small businesses," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 25(12), pages 2127-2167, December.
    2. Myers, Stewart C. & Majluf, Nicholas S., 1984. "Corporate financing and investment decisions when firms have information that investors do not have," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 187-221, June.
    3. Steven M. Fazzari & Bruce C. Petersen, 1993. "Working Capital and Fixed Investment: New Evidence on Financing Constraints," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 24(3), pages 328-342, Autumn.
    4. Stewart C. Myers & Nicholas S. Majluf, 1984. "Corporate Financing and Investment Decisions When Firms Have InformationThat Investors Do Not Have," NBER Working Papers 1396, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1992. "Liquidation Values and Debt Capacity: A Market Equilibrium Approach," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(4), pages 1343-1366, September.
    6. Whited, Toni M, 1992. "Debt, Liquidity Constraints, and Corporate Investment: Evidence from Panel Data," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(4), pages 1425-1460, September.
    7. N. Berger, Allen & F. Udell, Gregory, 1998. "The economics of small business finance: The roles of private equity and debt markets in the financial growth cycle," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 22(6-8), pages 613-673, August.
    8. Dittmar, Amy & Mahrt-Smith, Jan & Servaes, Henri, 2003. "International Corporate Governance and Corporate Cash Holdings," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 38(1), pages 111-133, March.
    9. Robert Watson & Nick Wilson, 2002. "Small and Medium Size Enterprise Financing: A Note on Some of the Empirical Implications of a Pecking Order," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3&4), pages 557-578.
    10. Leland, Hayne E & Pyle, David H, 1977. "Informational Asymmetries, Financial Structure, and Financial Intermediation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 32(2), pages 371-387, May.
    11. Baskin, Jonathan B, 1987. "Corporate Liquidity in Games of Monopoly Power," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 69(2), pages 312-319, May.
    12. Teresa A. John, 1993. "Accounting Measures of Corporate Liquidity, Leverage, and Costs of Financial Distress," Financial Management, Financial Management Association, vol. 22(3), Fall.
    13. Ozkan, Aydin & Ozkan, Neslihan, 2004. "Corporate cash holdings: An empirical investigation of UK companies," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(9), pages 2103-2134, September.
    14. Warner, Jerold B, 1977. "Bankruptcy Costs: Some Evidence," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 32(2), pages 337-347, May.
    15. Opler, Tim & Pinkowitz, Lee & Stulz, Rene & Williamson, Rohan, 1999. "The determinants and implications of corporate cash holdings," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 3-46, April.
    16. Flannery, Mark J, 1986. "Asymmetric Information and Risky Debt Maturity Choice," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 41(1), pages 19-37, March.
    17. Tim Opler & Lee Pinkowitz & René Stulz & Rohan Williamson, 2001. "Corporate Cash Holdings," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 14(1), pages 55-67, March.
    18. Jayant R. Kale & Thomas H. Noe, 1990. "Risky Debt Maturity Choice In A Sequential Game Equilibrium," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 13(2), pages 155-166, June.
    19. William J. Baumol, 1952. "The Transactions Demand for Cash: An Inventory Theoretic Approach," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 66(4), pages 545-556.
    20. Heitor Almeida & Murillo Campello & Michael S. Weisbach, 2004. "The Cash Flow Sensitivity of Cash," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 59(4), pages 1777-1804, August.
    21. Robert Watson & Nick Wilson, 2002. "Small and Medium Size Enterprise Financing: A Note on Some of the Empirical Implications of a Pecking Order," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3‐4), pages 557-578, April.
    22. Cole, Rebel A., 1998. "The importance of relationships to the availability of credit," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 22(6-8), pages 959-977, August.
    23. Rajan, Raghuram G & Zingales, Luigi, 1995. "What Do We Know about Capital Structure? Some Evidence from International Data," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 50(5), pages 1421-1460, December.
    24. Jensen, Michael C, 1986. "Agency Costs of Free Cash Flow, Corporate Finance, and Takeovers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 323-329, May.
    25. Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1974. "On the Irrelevance of Corporate Financial Policy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 64(6), pages 851-866, December.
    26. Lee Pinkowitz & Rene M. Stulz & Rohan Williamson, 2003. "Do Firms in Countries with Poor Protection of Investor Rights Hold More Cash?," NBER Working Papers 10188, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    27. Harhoff, Dietmar & Körting, Timm, 1998. "Lending Relationships in Germany: Empirical Results from Survey Data," CEPR Discussion Papers 1917, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    28. Edward I. Altman, 1968. "Financial Ratios, Discriminant Analysis And The Prediction Of Corporate Bankruptcy," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 23(4), pages 589-609, September.
    29. Harris, Milton & Raviv, Artur, 1990. "Capital Structure and the Informational Role of Debt," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 45(2), pages 321-349, June.
    30. Miguel A. Ferreira & Antonio S. Vilela, 2004. "Why Do Firms Hold Cash? Evidence from EMU Countries," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 10(2), pages 295-319, June.
    31. Kim, Chang-Soo & Mauer, David C. & Sherman, Ann E., 1998. "The Determinants of Corporate Liquidity: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 33(3), pages 335-359, September.
    32. Douglas W. Diamond, 1984. "Financial Intermediation and Delegated Monitoring," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 51(3), pages 393-414.
    33. Manuel Arellano & Stephen Bond, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 58(2), pages 277-297.
    34. Petersen, Mitchell A & Rajan, Raghuram G, 1994. "The Benefits of Lending Relationships: Evidence from Small Business Data," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 49(1), pages 3-37, March.
    35. Mulligan, Casey B, 1997. "Scale Economies, the Value of Time, and the Demand for Money: Longitudinal Evidence from Firms," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 105(5), pages 1061-1079, October.
    36. Anderson, T. W. & Hsiao, Cheng, 1982. "Formulation and estimation of dynamic models using panel data," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 47-82, January.
    37. Myers, Stewart C., 1977. "Determinants of corporate borrowing," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 147-175, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pedro J. García‐Teruel & Pedro Martínez‐Solano & Juan Pedro Sánchez‐Ballesta, 2009. "Accruals quality and corporate cash holdings," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 49(1), pages 95-115, March.
    2. Cristina Martínez-Sola & Pedro J. García-Teruel & Pedro Martínez-Solano, 2018. "Cash holdings in SMEs: speed of adjustment, growth and financing," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 51(4), pages 823-842, December.
    3. Gaio, Cristina & Gonçalves, Tiago & Venâncio, Ana, 2022. "Cash holdings in start-ups: The role of founder sociodemographic characteristics," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 520-528.
    4. Dobetz, Wolfgang & Grüninger, Matthias C., 2006. "Corporate cash holdings: Evidence from a different institutional setting," Working papers 2006/06, Faculty of Business and Economics - University of Basel.
    5. Ozkan, Aydin & Ozkan, Neslihan, 2004. "Corporate cash holdings: An empirical investigation of UK companies," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(9), pages 2103-2134, September.
    6. Guney, Yilmaz & Ozkan, Aydin & Ozkan, Neslihan, 2007. "International evidence on the non-linear impact of leverage on corporate cash holdings," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 45-60, February.
    7. Gary E. Powell & H. Kent Baker, 2010. "Management Views on Corporate Cash Holdings," Discussion Paper Series 2010-01, McColl School of Business, Queens University of Charlotte.
    8. Abdul Rashid & Maryam Ashfaq, 2017. "Financial Constraints And Corporate Cash Holdings: An Empirical Analysis Using Firm Level Data," Annals of Financial Economics (AFE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 12(02), pages 1-26, June.
    9. Orens, Raf & Reheul, Anne-Mie, 2011. "Do CEO Demographics Explain Cash Holdings in SMEs?," Working Papers 2011/35, Hogeschool-Universiteit Brussel, Faculteit Economie en Management.
    10. Orens, Raf & Reheul, Anne-Mie, 2013. "Do CEO demographics explain cash holdings in SMEs?," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 549-563.
    11. Yacine Belghitar & James Khan, 2013. "Governance mechanisms, investment opportunity set and SMEs cash holdings," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 59-72, January.
    12. Efstathios Magerakis & Konstantinos Gkillas & Athanasios Tsagkanos & Costas Siriopoulos, 2020. "Firm Size Does Matter: New Evidence on the Determinants of Cash Holdings," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-35, July.
    13. Stavros E. Arvanitis & Theodoros V. Stamatopoulos & Dimitris Terzakis, 2018. "Is There a Non-linear Relationship of Market Value with Cash and Ownership?," SPOUDAI Journal of Economics and Business, SPOUDAI Journal of Economics and Business, University of Piraeus, vol. 68(1), pages 3-25, January-M.
    14. Ahrends, Meike & Drobetz, Wolfgang & Nomikos, Nikos K., 2018. "Corporate cash holdings in the shipping industry," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 107-124.
    15. repec:dau:papers:123456789/1207 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Iskandar-Datta, Mai E. & Jia, Yonghong, 2012. "Cross-country analysis of secular cash trends," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 898-912.
    17. Paulo, Alves, 2018. "Abnormal retained earnings around the world," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 63-74.
    18. Satish Kumar & Riya Sureka & Sisira Colombage, 2020. "Capital structure of SMEs: a systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 70(4), pages 535-565, November.
    19. Maurizio Rocca & Raffaele Staglianò & Tiziana Rocca & Alfio Cariola & Ekaterina Skatova, 2019. "Cash holdings and SME performance in Europe: the role of firm-specific and macroeconomic moderators," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 53(4), pages 1051-1078, December.
    20. Farinha, Jorge & Mateus, Cesario & Soares, Nuno, 2018. "Cash holdings and earnings quality: evidence from the Main and Alternative UK markets," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 238-252.
    21. Bigelli, Marco & Sánchez-Vidal, Javier, 2012. "Cash holdings in private firms," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 26-35.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jbfnac:v:35:y:2008:i:1-2:p:127-149. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0306-686X .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.