To the extent that there are substitutes for holding high levels of cash, firms can
use them when they have cash shortfalls. For example, firms can use borrowing as a
substitute for holding cash because leverage can act as a proxy for the ability of firms
to issue debt (John, 1993). Moreover, Baskin (1987) argues that the cost of funds
used to invest in liquidity increases as the ratio of debt financing increases, which
would imply a reduction in cash holdings with increased debt in capital structure.
We, therefore, predict that there should be a negative relation between the firm’s
cash holdings and its leverage. However, one should note that higher debt levels
can increase the likelihood of financial distress. In that case one would expect a firm
with a high debt ratio to increase its cash holdings to decrease the likelihood of financial
distress. This would induce a positive relation between leverage and cash holdings.
Leverage is measured by the ratio of total debt to total assets.