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Research Details
Understanding the Rise in Corporate Cash: Precautionary Savings or Foreign Taxes [Editor's Choice], Review of Financial Studies
Abstract
What has driven the dramatic rise in U.S. corporate cash? Using non-public data, we show that the run-up is not uniform across firms but is concentrated in the foreign subsidiaries of multinational firms. Standard precautionary motives explain only domestic cash holdings, not these burgeoning foreign cash balances. Falling foreign tax rates, coupled with relaxed restrictions on income shifting, are the root of the changing foreign cash patterns. Firms with intellectual property have the greatest ability to shift income to low tax jurisdictions, and their foreign subsidiaries are where we observe the largest accumulations of cash.
Type
Article
Author(s)
Mitchell A. Petersen, Michael Faulkender, Kristine W Hankins
Date Published
2019
Citations
Petersen, Mitchell A., Michael Faulkender, and Kristine W Hankins. 2019. Understanding the Rise in Corporate Cash: Precautionary Savings or Foreign Taxes [Editor's Choice]. Review of Financial Studies. 32(9): 3299–3334.
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