Internationalization and Corporate Cash Holdings: Evidence from Brazil and Mexico

Abstract

This research expands on previous studies of cash holdings and their determinants by studying the relationship between the degree of internationalization and the level of corporate cash holdings. We used a sample of nonfinancial, publicly traded companies from Brazil and Mexico for the period from 2006 to 2010. Our results suggest that the degree of internationalization is a determinant of cash, and that cash holding increases quadratically as the degree of company internationalization grows. Such behavior was different from the North American company studies in Chiang and Wang (2011). Similar to previous studies, both Trade-off and Pecking Order predictions are relevant control variables in our model. Finally, companies held less cash on their balance sheets during the precrisis period.

Keywords

• cash management; degree of internationalization; multinational companies.