Flexibility Hypothesis: Self-interested managers value flexibility and freedom from capital market discipline
(Easterbrook, 1984; Jensen, 1986). In trading off current overinvestment versus future flexibility, they put
some weight on the latter. Thus, when the firm generates excess cash flow, these managers do not invest it all.
Rather, they stockpile some of it, preferring to hold large cash reserves. The less effective is shareholders’
control of managers, the greater will be the cash reserves.