기업의 비용구조가 현금의 한계가치에 미치는 영향

This study empirically analyzes the effects of corporate cost structure on the marginal value of cash. The sample firms are selected from firms listed on the Korea Exchange from 1999 to 2015 and are classified into fixed cost structure firms and flexible cost structure ones. Cost structure is determined using the methodology of Kahl, Lunn, and Nilsson(2012) and Kulchania(2016). The main results of this study can be summarized as follows. The cost structure have negative and significant effects on the marginal value of cash, implying that firms with higher fixed costs hold lower marginal value of cash. This result suggests that cash holdings may be value-destroying for shareholders when a fixed cost structure firm’s default risk increases due to higher fixed cost. It is also possible that managerial opportunism will play a further role, because a fixed cost structure firm’s managers have an incentive to hold large cash. Accordingly, this result partially supports the agency theory that a fixed cost structure firm’s managers tend to waste corporate resources by hoarding cash. This finding also contributes to the extant literature that examines the association between cost structure and cash holdings.