Our study addresses two issues overlooked in prior research: Does a firm’s future operating lease obligations influence its current cash holdings? Does this relationship contribute to the temporal increase in corporate cash holdings? We provide evidence that these future obligations...

Firms hold cash for precautionary reasons. The COVID-19 pandemic plausibly represents an exogenous shock for which firms hold cash. We examine the impact of cash holdings on corporate investment during the COVID-19 pandemic. We find that Capital Expenditure and M&A levels decrease by 37% and 71%...