The empirical analysis of the effects of the finacial reform on cash holdings of Jaoanese copanies

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K01767
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 07060:Money and finance-related
• Research Institution: Shinshu University
• Principal Investigator: Hirose Sumio 信州大学, 学術研究院社会科学系, 教授 (60377611)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 流動性資産保有 / フリーキャッシュフロー仮設 / エントレンチメント / スチュワードシップ・コード / コーポレートガバナンス・コード / 機関投資家 / 株主還元

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We empirically examine motives of cash-holding of Japanese corporate managements. Concretely, we focus on two aspects of the motives. One is a positive aspect that means insurance against future financial constraints. The other is negative one based on the Free-cashflow hypothesis. Excess cash-holding might cause moral hazard behavior of managements. We confirm the insurance roll of cash holding thorough finding out the negative relation between dependence on main-bank and cash-holding. If the firms were financially dependent upon their main-banks heavily, they could get financial supports from main-banks in case of financial difficulty. Therefore, they need not have much cash as insurance for financial difficulty. And we ascertain the negative aspect of cash-holding by confirming the negative relation between tendency of shareholder returns and cash-holding. Imposing strict discipline of shareholders on managements could prevent excess cash-holding and mitigate moral hazard problem.

Free Research Field

企業金融

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

2000年代後半以降，日本企業が内部留保の蓄積を拡大し続け，投資に消極的なことに，社会的に強い批判がある．そこで本研究では，2000年代以降の現金等資産（以下，流動性資産とする）保有行動に着目し，金融市場に関する制度環境の変化が，流動性資産保有行動に与えた影響を検証した．現行の制度要因が，内部留保拡大を促している可能性を確認できれば，制度を改善することで，流動性資産保有の必要性が低くなって実物投資を行う余力が増え，資源を有効活用することにつながる．