Debts and corporate cash holdings: Evidence from ASEAN-5

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of debts on corporate cash holding levels and how this impact varies through five large markets of the ASEAN economic community due to different business environment features, namely, macroeconomic factors and legal characteristics. Using the Generalized Method of Moments for dynamic panel models to analyze mega data of non-financial ASEAN-5 firms from 2009 to 2018, this study examined that ASEAN-5 firms maintain relatively high cash after the financial crisis. Second, macroeconomic policies strongly affect the adjustment speed of corporate cash holdings and corporate cash reserve levels in ASEAN-5 firms. Besides, the estimates indicate that there is an alternative nexus between debts and cash reserves in ASEAN-5 firms. Finally, the impact of debts on corporate cash holdings is sustainably influenced by the macroeconomic conditions and the specific characteristics of the legal environment. This paper provides a rational framework for decision-making by corporate managers and macro-policymakers to solve the agency problems related to the alternative nexus between free cash flow and debt.