Heterogeneous impact of cost of carry on corporate money demand

Abstract

Transaction cost model predicts opportunity costs should negatively affect money demand. Examining the effect of cost of carry (CC) on cash holdings at the firm-level, rather the average effect for entire population, we find that such a pervasive negative relation does not hold in times of low interest rate with about a 10% chance of observing positive effects. Firm size emerges as the primary driver of this heterogeneity, demonstrating a hump-shaped effect on the cash-CC link. Our findings suggest that policymakers should track the distributional impacts of opportunity cost of money demand over time to better evaluation of monetary policy.