기업의 비용구조가 현금보유에 미치는 영향

The Effects of Cost Structure on Corporate Cash Holdings

This study empirically analyzes the effects of cost structure on corporate cash holdings. The sample firms are selected from firms listed on the Korea Exchange from 1999 to 2015 and are classified into fixed cost structure firms and flexible cost structure ones. Cost structure is determined using the methodology of Kahl, Lunn and Nilsson (2012) and Kulchania (2016). The main results of this study can be summarized as follows. The cost structure has negative and significant effects on the corporate cash holdings, implying that the cost structure is negatively related to cash holdings. This relationship shows that firms with higher fixed costs hold higher levels of cash. Moreover, such relationship reveals that firms which see a change in the cost structure toward more fixed costs increase their cash holdings. In other words, this relationship shows that fixed cost structure firms hold more cash, but flexible cost structure firms hold less cash. Such findings provide further support for the research showing that firms with high operating leverage save more cash to decrease their default risks (Chen, Harford and Kamara, 2014; Novy-Marx, 2011).