IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/upf/upfgen/1692.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Financial disclosure environment and the cash policy of private firms

Author

Listed:
  • Marcelo Ortiz

Abstract

This paper proposes that private firms facing stronger financial constraints benefit from greater transparency in the financial disclosure environment since it facilitates the estimation of future liquidity needs. I test this idea using a sample of private firms from 12 European countries with similar disclosure regulations for public and private firms. Consistently, I find that private firms hold less cash when they operate in industries with a higher fraction of peers disclosing extended financial reports. Further, I find that the decrease in cash holding is more pronounced in industries with higher cash-deficit risk and for younger firms. These findings are mainly explained by the disclosures of other private peers, which provide a means for learning from firms with similar liquidity constraints.

Suggested Citation

  • Marcelo Ortiz, 2020. "Financial disclosure environment and the cash policy of private firms," Economics Working Papers 1692, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    • Handle: RePEc:upf:upfgen:1692
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://econ-papers.upf.edu/papers/1692.pdf
    File Function: Whole Paper
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gao, Huasheng & Harford, Jarrad & Li, Kai, 2013. "Determinants of corporate cash policy: Insights from private firms," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(3), pages 623-639.
    2. Beyer, Anne & Cohen, Daniel A. & Lys, Thomas Z. & Walther, Beverly R., 2010. "The financial reporting environment: Review of the recent literature," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 296-343, December.
    3. Badertscher, Brad & Shroff, Nemit & White, Hal D., 2013. "Externalities of public firm presence: Evidence from private firms' investment decisions," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(3), pages 682-706.
    4. Omer Brav, 2009. "Access to Capital, Capital Structure, and the Funding of the Firm," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(1), pages 263-308, February.
    5. Acharya, Viral V. & Almeida, Heitor & Campello, Murillo, 2007. "Is cash negative debt? A hedging perspective on corporate financial policies," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 515-554, October.
    6. Love, Inessa & Preve, Lorenzo A. & Sarria-Allende, Virginia, 2007. "Trade credit and bank credit: Evidence from recent financial crises," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(2), pages 453-469, February.
    7. Roni Michaely & Michael R. Roberts, 2012. "Corporate Dividend Policies: Lessons from Private Firms," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 25(3), pages 711-746.
    8. Bernard, Darren, 2016. "Is the risk of product market predation a cost of disclosure?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 305-325.
    9. Hans B. Christensen & Luzi Hail & Christian Leuz, 2016. "Capital-Market Effects of Securities Regulation: Prior Conditions, Implementation, and Enforcement," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 29(11), pages 2885-2924.
    10. Paul Ehling & David Haushalter, 2014. "When does cash matter? Evidence for private firms," Working Papers 1412, Banco de España.
    11. Matthias Breuer & Katharina Hombach & Maximilian A Müller, 2018. "How Does Financial Reporting Regulation Affect Firms’ Banking?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 31(4), pages 1265-1297.
    12. Han, Seungjin & Qiu, Jiaping, 2007. "Corporate precautionary cash holdings," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 43-57, March.
    13. Shroff, Nemit, 2016. "Discussion of “Is the risk of product market predation a cost of disclosure?”," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 326-332.
    14. Christian Leuz & Peter D. Wysocki, 2016. "The Economics of Disclosure and Financial Reporting Regulation: Evidence and Suggestions for Future Research," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(2), pages 525-622, May.
    15. Roychowdhury, Sugata & Shroff, Nemit & Verdi, Rodrigo S., 2019. "The effects of financial reporting and disclosure on corporate investment: A review," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(2).
    16. Ran Duchin, 2010. "Cash Holdings and Corporate Diversification," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 65(3), pages 955-992, June.
    17. Shenoy, Jaideep & Williams, Ryan, 2017. "Trade credit and the joint effects of supplier and customer financial characteristics," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 68-80.
    18. Michael Minnis & Nemit Shroff, 2017. "Why regulate private firm disclosure and auditing?," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(5), pages 473-502, July.
    19. Bliss, Barbara A. & Cheng, Yingmei & Denis, David J., 2015. "Corporate payout, cash retention, and the supply of credit: Evidence from the 2008–2009 credit crisis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(3), pages 521-540.
    20. Xin Chang & Sudipto Dasgupta & George Wong & Jiaquan Yao, 2014. "Cash-Flow Sensitivities and the Allocation of Internal Cash Flow," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 27(12), pages 3628-3657.
    21. Karl V. Lins & Paolo Volpin & Hannes F. Wagner, 2013. "Does Family Control Matter? International Evidence from the 2008--2009 Financial Crisis," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 26(10), pages 2583-2619.
    22. Nemit Shroff & Amy X. Sun & Hal D. White & Weining Zhang, 2013. "Voluntary Disclosure and Information Asymmetry: Evidence from the 2005 Securities Offering Reform," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(5), pages 1299-1345, December.
    23. Sørensen, Bent E & Kalemli-Özcan, Sebnem & Volosovych, Vadym & Villegas-Sanchez, Carolina & Yesiltas, Sevcan, 2015. "How to construct nationally representative firm level data from the ORBIS global database," CEPR Discussion Papers 10829, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    24. Lins, Karl V. & Servaes, Henri & Tufano, Peter, 2010. "What drives corporate liquidity? An international survey of cash holdings and lines of credit," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(1), pages 160-176, October.
    25. Dye, Ronald A. & Hughes, John S., 2018. "Equilibrium voluntary disclosures, asset pricing, and information transfers," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 1-24.
    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. Siti Amalia & Dadang Lesmana & Yanzil Azizil Yudaruddin & Rizky Yudaruddin, 2022. "The Impact of Board Structure on Voluntary Environmental and Energy Disclosure in an Emerging Market," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 12(4), pages 430-438, July.

    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. Marcelo Ortiz, 2020. "Financial Disclosure Environment and the Cash Policy of Private Firms," Working Papers 1148, Barcelona School of Economics.
    2. Matthias Breuer, 2021. "How Does Financial‐Reporting Regulation Affect Industry‐Wide Resource Allocation?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(1), pages 59-110, March.
    3. Bernard, Darren & Kaya, Devrimi & Wertz, John, 2021. "Entry and capital structure mimicking in concentrated markets: The role of incumbents’ financial disclosures," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(2).
    4. Cyrus Aghamolla & Richard T. Thakor, 2022. "Do Mandatory Disclosure Requirements for Private Firms Increase the Propensity of Going Public?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(3), pages 755-804, June.
    5. Roychowdhury, Sugata & Shroff, Nemit & Verdi, Rodrigo S., 2019. "The effects of financial reporting and disclosure on corporate investment: A review," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(2).
    6. Bernard, Darren & Burgstahler, David & Kaya, Devrimi, 2018. "Size management by European private firms to minimize proprietary costs of disclosure," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 94-122.
    7. 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.
    8. Michael Minnis & Nemit Shroff, 2017. "Why regulate private firm disclosure and auditing?," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(5), pages 473-502, July.
    9. Shroff, Nemit & Verdi, Rodrigo S. & Yost, Benjamin P., 2017. "When does the peer information environment matter?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 183-214.
    10. Pietro Bonetti & Miguel Duro & Gaizka Ormazabal, 2020. "Disclosure Regulation and Corporate Acquisitions," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(1), pages 55-103, March.
    11. Chang, Ching-Hung & Chen, Sheng-Syan & Chen, Yan-Shing & Peng, Shu-Cing, 2019. "Commitment to build trust by socially responsible firms: Evidence from cash holdings," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 364-387.
    12. Abdulla, Yomna & Dang, Viet Anh & Khurshed, Arif, 2020. "Suppliers' listing status and trade credit provision," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    13. Abdulla, Yomna & Dang, Viet Anh & Khurshed, Arif, 2017. "Stock market listing and the use of trade credit: Evidence from public and private firms," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 391-410.
    14. Lynn Linghuan Wang, 2023. "Transmission Effects of ESG Disclosure Regulations Through Bank Lending Networks," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(3), pages 935-978, June.
    15. Ummar Aftab & Attiya Yasmin Javid & Waseem Akhter, 2018. "The Determinants of Cash Holdings around Different Regions of the World," Business & Economic Review, Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar, Pakistan, vol. 10(2), pages 151-182, June.
    16. Jan Felix Weidemann, 2018. "A state-of-the-art review of corporate cash holding research," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 88(6), pages 765-797, August.
    17. Park, Jihwon & Sani, Jalal & Shroff, Nemit & White, Hal, 2019. "Disclosure incentives when competing firms have common ownership," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 387-415.
    18. Heitor Almeida & Murillo Campello & Igor Cunha & Michael S. Weisbach, 2014. "Corporate Liquidity Management: A Conceptual Framework and Survey," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 6(1), pages 135-162, December.
    19. Basu, Debarati & Sen, Kaustav, 2022. "Organizational form and access to capital: The role of regulatory interventions," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3).
    20. Nyborg, Kjell & Wang, Zexi, 2019. "Corporate cash holdings: Stock liquidity and the repurchase motive," CEPR Discussion Papers 13791, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Disclosure regulation; cash policy; private firms.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Accounting
    • M48 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:upf:upfgen:1692. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.econ.upf.edu/ .

    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.