UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS ERASMUS UNVERSITY ROTTERDAM HO CHI MINH CITY INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL STUDIES VIETNAM THE NETHERLANDS VIETNAM – THE NETHERLANDS PROGRAMME FOR M.A IN DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS THE EFFECT OF CASH FLOW SENSITIVITY ON ENTERPRISES’ CASH HOLDINGS: EVIDENCE FROM VIETNAM BY LE KHA TU MASTER OF ARTS IN DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY, December 2017 123doc UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL STUDIES HO CHI MINH CITY THE HAGUE VIETNAM THE NETHERLANDS VIETNAM - NETHERLANDS PROGRAMME FOR M.A IN DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS THE EFFECT OF CASH FLOW SENSITIVITY ON ENTERPRISES’ CASH HOLDINGS: EVIDENCE FROM VIETNAM A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS IN DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS By LE KHA TU Academic Supervisor: Dr. NGO MINH HAI HO CHI MINH CITY, December 2017 123doc ABSTRACT Cash holdings have long been a particular concern when studying the financial policies of enterprises. The global financial crisis in 2008 has impacted many economies in the world; Vietnam was one of the few emerging economies in Southeast Asia being less affected by the crisis. However, the crisis has negative impacts on the macroeconomy of Vietnam.
Low GDP growth rates, booming inflation and escalating interest rates made Vietnamese enterprises’ situation more difficult. Along with the Central bank's tightening monetary policy to curb inflation, commercial banks simultaneously restricted the issuance of large loans, which were more difficult for firms to access more capital. In that context, the efficient use of cash holdings is the key to business success. To use effectively the cash flow of the firms, it is important to study the factors that affect the cash holdings of firms.
Thus, the author chose the topic "The effect of cash flow sensitivity on enterprises’ cash holdings: Evidence from Vietnam" to study the effect of financial factors on firms’ cash holdings in Vietnam. The main objective of the study was to find empirical evidence on the effects of cash flow sensitivities on cash holdings in the world and to seek evidence of this in Vietnam. The study uses data from financial statements of 274 non-financial firms listed on Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) and Hochiminh Stock Exchange (HOSE) between 2009 and 2015. In Vietnam, cash flow sensitivities have a real impact on the cash holdings of firms, which is greater for firms with negative cash flows.
The financial constraint also affects the relationship between cash flow sensitivity and cash holdings, but the agency problem does not show any significant influence on this relationship. Based on the results of the study, the paper offers some recommendations to help businesses make better cash management options. At the same time, the paper also outlines some of the remaining limitations of research and future research. Keywords: Cash flow sensitivity, cash holdings, financial constraint, agency problem, asymmetric i 123doc ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The first word I would like to send my sincere thanks to all Vietnam – Netherlands Programme professors, who have taught and imparted me valuable knowledge during the time of study and research, enabling me to complete this thesis.
You all not only gave me the knowledge but also created the best conditions for me in the data collection and thesis writing process. Friendly and kind Vietnam – Netherlands Programme staff were always willing to help me on physical facilities as well as references. I would like to sincerely and gratefully thank Dr. Ngo Minh Hai, my supervisor, for his great assistance, principal and valued advice, guiding me from the smallest steps to help my thesis complete.
I would like to express my deep gratitude to all my friends, families, who have always been with me, cheered and supported me all the time. Despite all the effort, due to limited knowledge and time, the problems presented in this thesis will certainly have many shortcomings. I look forward to receiving feedback, evaluations and comments from the professors. ii 123doc CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .1 The problem statement .2 The research objectives .4 The thesis structure.
3 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .2 Studies on the effects of cash flow sensitivity on cash holdings .1 The impact of change in cash flow on cash holdings .2 The relationship between financial constraints and cash holdings of a company .3 Summary of previous findings. 9 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .1 The analytical framework .2 The econometric models .1 Model the effect of cash flow sensitivity on cash holdings .2 The effect of cash flow sensitivity on cash holdings is under financial constraints .3 The effect of cash flow sensitivity on cash holdings is in the agency problem .4 Fixed Effects and Random Effects .6 Expectations on research results .1 Effects of cash flow sensitivity on cash holdings .2 Effects of cash flow sensitivity on cash holdings under financial constraints .3 Effects of cash flow sensitivity on cash holdings under agency problem. 23 CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH RESULTS. Regression results and discussions .1 Effects of cash flow sensitivity on cash holdings .2 Effects of cash flow sensitivity on cash holdings under financial constraints .3 Effects of cash flow sensitivity on cash holdings under agency problem.
51 iv 123doc LIST OF TABLES Table 4. 3: Compare the mean of variables. 4: Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficients. 5: The results of Almeida (2004).
6: Estimation results of the model. 7: Results of the asymmetry sensitivity of cash flow. 8: Cash Flow and Cash of FPT Corporation for the period 2009 – 2015. 9: The number of observations of companies by year divided into three categories.
10: The summary statistics for the cash holdings of the two groups of companies by the three classification criteria. 11: Estimation results for financial constraints. 12: Estimation results of the model for agency problem. 43 v 123doc CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 The problem statements The 2008 financial crisis was the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression of 1929, having a strong impact on the world in general and Southeast Asia in specific.
However, Vietnam was one of the few economies that were less affected by the recession caused by this crisis. Nevertheless, the GDP growth rates for seven consecutive years (from 2009 to 2015) were in low level, showing that the crisis still had negative impacts on Vietnamese economy. Moreover, in the period of 2009-2015, Vietnam’s inflation was abnormal (a sudden increase to 19% in 2011 and then declining), bad debts became a serious problem and getting worse. Vietnamese enterprises were directly affected by the crisis, the number of enterprises reporting losses was increasing and many businesses were forced to dissolve.
In that context, cash holdings were paid more attention, since cash management is the key to a success business as accessing capital markets is difficult. For effective cash management, the first problem is what factors affect the firm's cash holdings. Prior literature has widely studied the effects of cash flow on cash holdings and got certain conclusions. Almeida et al.
(2004), Khurana et al. (2006) found cash flow sensitivity was positive. Meanwhile, Riddick and Whited (2009), Bao, Chan and Zhang (2012) found that cash flow sensitivity was negative. The study of cash flow sensitivity of cash holdings may help firms proposing a better cash management model, thereby firms use cash more efficiently.
However, in Vietnam, the effect of cash flow sensitivity on cash holdings has yet to be studied extensively, and there are disputations on this problem in the world. For this reason, the author chose the research topic "The Effect of Cash Flow Sensitivity on Cash Holdings: Evidence from Vietnam", examining whether or not the effect of cash flow sensitivity on cash holdings in Vietnamese enterprises.2 The research objectives The main purpose is examing the effect of cash flow sensitivity on cash holdings, the paper includes two basic objectives: - Examining the effect of cash flow sensitivity on cash holdings in Vietnamese enterprises - Verifying the nonlinear relationship between cash flow sensitivity and cash holdings. To accomplish two research objectives, the paper will solve the following research problems: - Is there any evidence in the world about the effect of cash flow sensitivity on cash holdings? - Which method is appropriate to test the effect of cash flow sensitivity on cash holdings in Vietnam? - What factors affects the cash flow sensitivity on cash holdings? - What is the effect of cash flow sensitivity on cash holdings in case the firm has positive cash flow and negative cash flow? 1.3 Research contribution Research on the effect of cash flow sensitivities has a very important meaning, especially for firms. Financially, cash flow sensitivity can represent a company's risk, because cash flow sensitivity is the level of change in the company's cash when cash flow changes.
If a company has high cash flow sensitivity, this can affect corporate financial policies such as dividends and capital structure. A company with high cash- flow sensitivity is difficult to maintain a capital structure with high debt ratios due to insecure liquidity and the company is hard to implement a good dividend policy when cash always has instability. Thus, finding the impact of cash flow sensitivity can help firms understand how cash flow affects their cash holdings, so they can provide better cash management and better implementation of dividend payment and capital mobilization policies. The results of the study will also contribute to the global debate on how cash flow sensitivity affects cash holdings.4 The thesis structure The research is organized in the following chapters: Chapter 1: Introduction.
This chapter presents the reasons for choosing topics, research objectives, research methods, research contribution and thesis structure. Chapter 2: Overview of previous studies on the impact of cash flow sensitivity on cash holdings. This chapter presents the results of the previous study on the effect of cash flow sensitivity on cash holdings, findings, arguments and limited issues in these studies. Chapter 3: Research Methods.
This chapter will detail the research model, variables in the model, data as well as expectations about the research results. Chapter 4: Research Results. This chapter presents and discusses the results of the study on the effect of cash flow sensitivity on cash holdings of firms in Vietnam, the results of examination with financial constraints and agency problem. Chapter 5: Conclusions and limitations of the study.
This chapter presents the contributions of the research, the next research direction, and the limitations. 3 123doc CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction There are many reasons for the company to hold cash. The most basic reason is that the company holds cash to pay off debts and finance its investments. When a company is not limited to accessing a capital market, the company's cash holdings will be less.
But the mobilization of external funding is often associated with high capital expenditure. Thus, firms always give priority to using cash held by the company itself to avoid the burden of costs. One of the important cash-flowing channels for the company is through cash flow from its revenues. The change in this cash flow will cause the change in the company's cash holdings.
Some researchers have focused on this aspect when studying cash holdings.2 Studies on the effects of cash flow sensitivity on cash holdings 2.1 The impact of change in cash flow on cash holdings Almeida et. introduced a model of a firm’s liquidity demand that formalizes Keynes’ intuition. The model hypothesizes that firms with capital constraints tend to have cash holdings from cash inflows. Almeida et al argue that firms that were not constrained in their access to funding would not show cash incentives, when the firm’s cash flow changed, their cash holdings would not be affected while financially constrained firms would be affected by changes in cash flow.
To test their hypotheses, Almeida et. used a database of manufacturing firms between 1971 and 2000, and used OLS regression to estimate the model. The hypothesis of the model predicted that a change in cash holdings would correspond to the cash flow shock.