No abstract

Firms differ in their dependence on skilled labor, and face labor adjustment costs that increase with their workers' skill level. We show that firms with a higher share of skilled workers, and thus less flexibility to adjust their labor demand in response to cash flow shocks, hold more precautionary cash.The effect of labor skills on cash holdings is more pronounced for financially constrained firms and varies with exogenous differences in firing and hiring costs. We address endogeneity concerns by using subsamples of firms with reasonably similar characteristics, propensity score matching, and a quasi-experimental shock to labor markets.

This paper examines the relation between employee welfare practices and corporate cash holdings. We find firms that are strongly committed to employee well-being, measured by ratings on employee relations, to hold more cash. The effect of employee welfare standards on cash holdings is stronger for firms in human-capital-intensive, competitive, and highlabor-mobility industries in which employees are more important to their businesses. These results are consistent with the predictions of the stakeholder theory. Overall, our paper provides novel evidence on the role human capital and employee relations play in a firm's cash management policy.

No abstract

No abstract