금융제약 중소기업의 생존과 현금의 경제적 가치: 이중 차분 및 성향점수 기법의 응용

This paper examines the value of cash holdings under the precautionary motive for SMEs in the private sector having non-listed obliged external-auditing. Such SMEs often face financial constraints, so their cash holdings can help protect or hedge against potential crisis in the future. Holmström and Tirole (2001) discuss the functions of corporate cash and show its similarity to insurance or put options. Cash holdings generate little gains in normal operations so can be seen as an opportunity cost. This can be regarded as a payment of insurance premium or option premium. For the precautionary corporate cash holdings to have value, it should have an essential role in protecting and shielding the firm, thereby contributing to its survival. For example, the 2008 Global Financial Crisis (2008 GFC) was a threat to the survival for SMEs. In this paper, we employ the 2008 GFC as a natural experiment and empirically investigate whether corporate cash helped firms’ survival under the crisis. To do this, we use a large database comprising of more than 30,000 firms. Using difference- in-difference, propensity score and generalized propensity score method, we find that the protection role of cash against the crisis had a strong statistical significance, but only little economic significance. Hence, we argue that corporate cash can help protect a firm from negative shock due to a credit crunch, but is not a complete solution for future potential crises.