Easy Come, Easy Go: Cheap Cash and Bad Corporate Decisions

Abstract

Large cash reserves have typically been associated with agency problems and poor investment decisions. I explore the cross sectional variation on the sources of cash holdings (internal vs. external to the firm) and find that previous evidence on overinvestment is mainly driven by firms that build their cash reserves using internal funds. Firms that use external funds do not engage in empire-building acquisitions that destroy shareholder value. I also find that these firms present higher announcement returns to their share repurchases in response to a signal they send to the market that they are no longer dependent on external capital.