An examination of real activities management and corporate cash holdings

Abstract

I examine the relation between aggressive income increasing real activities management (RAM) and corporate cash holdings. Motivated by Jensen's (1986) concerns about free cash flows, I investigate whether aggressive cuts in discretionary expenditures are associated with higher levels and changes of cash holdings. Using empirical models from prior research, I document that aggressive income increasing RAM is associated with higher cash holdings and this positive association is stronger in weakly governed firms. I also find that weakly governed firms with aggressive income increasing RAM and high levels of cash tend to spend more on future investments, suggesting an effort to reduce accumulated cash and increase real assets under control. My results are robust to endogeneity, additional control variables, and alternative design choices. Evidence in this study provides a link between corporate cash holdings and aggressive cuts in discretionary expenses that allow managers to report higher earnings, indicating that efforts to achieve financial reporting objectives have implications for cash management.