Value of Cash Holdings and Accounting Conservatism

40 Pages Posted: 11 Jun 2009 Last revised: 25 Aug 2011

See all articles by Henock Louis

Henock Louis

Pennsylvania State University - Smeal College of Business

Amy X. Sun

University of Houston

Oktay Urcan

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: August 16, 2011

Abstract

We posit that accounting conservatism could mitigate the value destruction associated with increases in cash holdings. Consistent with this conjecture, we find that the market value of an additional dollar in cash holdings increases in accounting conservatism. This result is robust to controlling for strength of corporate governance, earnings quality, past stock performance, potential unobserved firm heterogeneity, potential endogenous changes in conservatism, and other relevant variables. Overall, the evidence suggests that accounting conservatism is associated with a more efficient use of cash holdings, supporting the notion that accounting conservatism can serve as a substitute for external monitoring and reduce agency conflicts between managers and shareholders.

Keywords: Cash holdings, Accounting conservatism, Agency costs

JEL Classification: M41, G30, G32

Suggested Citation

Louis, Henock and Sun, Amy X. and Urcan, Oktay, Value of Cash Holdings and Accounting Conservatism (August 16, 2011). AAA 2010 Financial Accounting and Reporting Section (FARS) Paper, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1415562 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1415562

Henock Louis (Contact Author)

Pennsylvania State University - Smeal College of Business ( email )

University Park, PA 16802-3306
United States
814-865-4160 (Phone)
814-863-8393 (Fax)

Amy X. Sun

University of Houston ( email )

Bauer College of Business
334 Melcher Hall, 390H
Houston, TX 77204
United States
7137435682 (Phone)

Oktay Urcan

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ( email )

515 E. Gregory Drive
4066 BIF MC-520
Champaign, IL 61820
United States
217-265-0383 (Phone)
217-244-0902 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://business.illinois.edu/profile/oktay-urcan/

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