IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jjrfmx/v17y2024i2p53-d1329832.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Effect of Cash Holdings on Financial Performance: Evidence from Middle Eastern and North African Countries

Author

Listed:
  • Ilker Yilmaz

    (Department of Accounting, Dhofar University, Salalah 211, Oman)

  • Ahmed Samour

    (Department of Accounting, Dhofar University, Salalah 211, Oman)

Abstract

This work aimed to examine the effect of corporate cash holdings on financial performance. The data covered 536 non-financial firms for the 2006–2020 period from 11 MENA region countries. This study used fixed- and random-effects testing models. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that aimed to study the effect of corporate cash holdings on financial performance in MENA countries in two aspects: linear and non-linear relationships. By using the return on assets, return on equity, earnings before interest, and the tax margin as the indicators of financial performance, we developed two groups of models investigating the linear and non-linear relationships between cash holdings and profitability measures. The models included several control variables, namely leverage, firm size, sales growth rate, tangibility, dividend pay-out ratio, and gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate. The results of this study revealed that both the linear and non-linear models produced significant results for the return on assets and the return on equity, but for the earnings before interest and tax margins, the linear model was insignificant. The non-linear models indicated an optimal level of cash holdings. In this context, the policymakers must actively evaluate these policies, such as working capital management and its effect on financial performance. In addition, the policymakers must consider macroeconomic conditions when designing corporate cash-holding policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Ilker Yilmaz & Ahmed Samour, 2024. "The Effect of Cash Holdings on Financial Performance: Evidence from Middle Eastern and North African Countries," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 17(2), pages 1-12, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jjrfmx:v:17:y:2024:i:2:p:53-:d:1329832
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1911-8074/17/2/53/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1911-8074/17/2/53/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thomas W. Bates & Kathleen M. Kahle & René M. Stulz, 2009. "Why Do U.S. Firms Hold So Much More Cash than They Used To?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(5), pages 1985-2021, October.
    2. Jarrad Harford & Sattar A. Mansi & William F. Maxwell, 2012. "Corporate Governance and Firm Cash Holdings in the U.S," Springer Books, in: Sabri Boubaker & Bang Dang Nguyen & Duc Khuong Nguyen (ed.), Corporate Governance, edition 127, pages 107-138, Springer.
    3. Ivalina Kalcheva & Karl V. Lins, 2007. "International Evidence on Cash Holdings and Expected Managerial Agency Problems," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 20(4), pages 1087-1112.
    4. Dittmar, Amy & Mahrt-Smith, Jan, 2007. "Corporate governance and the value of cash holdings," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(3), pages 599-634, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tahir Akhtar, 2025. "Cash holdings in MENA region: evidence from trade-off model, pecking order theory, and agency theory," Future Business Journal, Springer, vol. 11(1), pages 1-18, December.

    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. Tiziana La Rocca & Maurizio La Rocca & Francesco Fasano & Alfio Cariola, 2023. "Does a country's environmental policy affect the value of small and medium sized enterprises liquidity in the energy sector?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(1), pages 277-290, January.
    2. Amess, Kevin & Banerji, Sanjay & Lampousis, Athanasios, 2015. "Corporate cash holdings: Causes and consequences," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 421-433.
    3. Liu, Benjamin & Johl, Shireenjit & Lasantha, Ruwan, 2023. "ESG scores and cash holdings: The role of disciplinary trading," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 55(PA).
    4. Peiqiong Wang & Xianhua Zhang & Taozhi Wang & Zilu Wan, 2023. "Executive compensation controls and corporate cash holdings," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(9), pages 1-26, September.
    5. Tahir Akhtar & Ameen Qasem & Shoaib Khan, 2025. "Internal corporate governance and cash holdings: the role of external governance mechanism," International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 22(1), pages 1-27, March.
    6. Arnold, Marc, 2014. "Managerial cash use, default, and corporate financial policies," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 305-325.
    7. Tahir Akhtar & Mohammad Ali Tareq & Kashif Rashid, 2021. "Chief Executive Officers’ monitoring, board effectiveness, managerial ownership, and cash holdings: evidence from ASEAN," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 15(8), pages 2193-2238, November.
    8. Kose John & Yuanzhi Li & Jiaren Pang, 2017. "Does Corporate Governance Matter More for High Financial Slack Firms?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(6), pages 1872-1891, June.
    9. Ahrends, Meike & Drobetz, Wolfgang & Puhan, Tatjana Xenia, 2018. "Cyclicality of growth opportunities and the value of cash holdings," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 74-96.
    10. Mortal, Sandra & Nanda, Vikram & Reisel, Natalia, 2020. "Why do private firms hold less cash than public firms? International evidence on cash holdings and borrowing costs," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    11. Duan, Tingting & Yang, Xue & Zhang, Zhe, 2023. "The improvement of legal system, entrepreneur immigration, and corporate cash holdings," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    12. Bigelli, Marco & Sánchez-Vidal, Javier, 2012. "Cash holdings in private firms," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 26-35.
    13. Sun, Wenyi & Yin, Chao & Zeng, Yeqin, 2023. "Precautionary motive or private benefit motive for holding cash: Evidence from CEO ownership," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    14. Couzoff, Panagiotis & Banerjee, Shantanu & Pawlina, Grzegorz, 2022. "Effectiveness of monitoring, managerial entrenchment, and corporate cash holdings," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    15. Audrey Wenhsin Hsu & Sophia Hsintsai Liu, 2018. "Parent-subsidiary investment layers and the value of corporate cash holdings," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 51(3), pages 651-681, October.
    16. Zhang, Xiang & Zhang, Zongyi & Zhou, Han, 2020. "Oil price uncertainty and cash holdings: Evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    17. Tahir Akhtar & Mohammad Ali Tareq & Kashif Rashid, 2023. "The role of shareholders and creditors' rights in affecting cash holdings and firm value: A recent evidence from ASEAN," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(1), pages 929-961, January.
    18. Chen, Naiwei & Yu, Min-Teh, 2021. "National Governance and Corporate Liquidity in Organization of Islamic Cooperation Countries: Evidence based on a Sharia-compliant Liquidity Measure," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(C).
    19. Xin Chen & Chang Yang, 2021. "Vertical interlock and the value of cash holdings," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(1), pages 561-593, March.
    20. Sabri Boubaker & Imen Derouiche & Duc Nguyen, 2015. "Does the board of directors affect cash holdings? A study of French listed firms," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 19(2), pages 341-370, May.

    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:gam:jjrfmx:v:17:y:2024:i:2:p:53-:d:1329832. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.