In this paper, we have investigated firms’ cash holding decisions by using firm-level data
from Japan, France, Germany, the UK and the US. There are mainly two important features of our
analysis, which, we believe, extend our understanding of the cash holding behaviour of firms. First,
this paper provides a detailed analysis of the relationship between cash holdings and leverage.
More specifically,we establish that borrowing decisions of firms exert a non-linear impact on their
cash holding decisions. We argue that this stems from the fact that leverage acts as a substitute
for cash holdings but at the same time increases the probability of financial distress. Hence, one
observes first a negative relationship at lower levels of leverage and the observed relation becomes
positive at high leverage levels.