What Lies Beneath: Foreign Exchange Rate Exposure, Hedging and Cash Flows
Journal of Banking and Finance, Vol. 32, No. 8, pp. 1508-1521, August 2008
32 Pages Posted: 30 May 2006 Last revised: 23 Dec 2019
Date Written: June 1, 2007
Abstract
This paper presents results from an in-depth analysis of the foreign exchange rate exposure of a large nonfinancial firm based on proprietary internal data including cash flows, derivatives and foreign currency debt, as well as external capital market data. While the operations of the multinational firm have significant exposure to foreign exchange rate risk due to foreign currency-based activities and international competition, corporate hedging mitigates this gross exposure. The analysis illustrates that the insignificance of foreign exchange rate exposures of comprehensive performance measures such as total cash flow can be explained by hedging at the firm level. Thus, the residual net exposure is economically and statistically small, even if the operating cash flows of the firm are significantly exposed to exchange rate risk. The results of the paper suggest that managers of nonfinancial firms with operations exposed to foreign exchange rate risk take savvy actions to reduce exposure to a level too low to allow its detection empirically.
Keywords: Foreign exchange rates, exposure, risk management, cash flow, derivatives, corporate finance
JEL Classification: G3, F4, F3
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
Risk Management: Coordinating Corporate Investment and Financing Policies
By Kenneth Froot, David S. Scharfstein, ...
-
Why Firms Use Currency Derivatives
By Christopher Geczy, Bernadette A. Minton, ...
-
The Use of Foreign Currency Derivatives and Firm Market Value
-
Exchange Rate Exposure, Hedging, and the Use of Foreign Currency Derivatives
-
Do Firms Hedge in Response to Tax Incentives?
By John R. Graham and Daniel A. Rogers
-
How Much Do Firms Hedge with Derivatives?
By Wayne R. Guay and S.p. Kothari
-
How Much Do Firms Hedge with Derivatives?
By Wayne R. Guay and S.p. Kothari
-
By John M. Griffin and René M. Stulz