우리나라 상장기업에서 금융위기 기간과 그 이외의 기간에서 초과현금보유액의 가치 관련성에 대한 실증적 분석: 재무적 제약 정도와기업지배구조를 중심으로

The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of excess cash holdings on value of the firms listed in Korean Stock Market over 2001 through 2104 period. This study considers this relation in the context of financial constraints, corporate governance, and mainly the recent financial crisis. Studies that assess the value of cash holdings show that the extent to which a firm is financially constrained will impact the results. A financially constrained firm is typically smaller, younger and faces greater market frictions when getting external financing. Cash is expected to be more valuable to those firms. Similarly the quality of corporate governance will have an impact on the value that shareholders put on cash holdings. Poorly governed firms are more likely to waste cash whereas well governed firms ensure a more effective use of their cash. The relation between excess cash holdings and firm value is expected to vary in times of financial crisis. Restricted lending policies from banks, decreasing asset market values and pressure on market liquidity will result in a change in cash availability. This study use data covering the period 2001 to 2014, and among them 2008 through 2010 are considered to be financial crisis period. This study examines the unexpected change in cash holdings, modelling annual firm excess return as a function of the change in excess cash holdings. The model is assessed for constrained and unconstrained firms and for the quality of corporate governance. This study predicts that the impact of excess cash holdings on firm value will be stronger in times of financial crisis, irrespective of firms’ financial constraint status. However, given constrained firms are sensitive to financial crisis shock, this study expects the impact to be more pronounced for constrained firms. Firms with good corporate governance are expected to have a stronger relation between excess cash holdings and firm value and this relation will be more vivid if a firm is financially constrained. This study considers the relevance of the quality of corporate governance using both the Korea Corporate Governance Service Index and institutional ownership as our proxies. This study finds that the equity market places a higher value on corporate cash holdings during the financial crisis. Also, there is some evidence to show excess cash holdings is more valuable to constrained firms, compared to unconstrained firms. The value impact is also more pronounced during the crisis. The interaction of excess cash with constraint and crisis effects show a strong negative effect. That is, the crisis value effect for constrained firms is less than that of unconstrained firms. Finally, the interaction of excess cash with governance and constraint effects generally show a positive effect, suggesting that the positive governance effect on corporate cash holdings becomes more pronounced for firms that are financially constrained.