14,823 research outputs found

    A new mesh selection algorithm, based on conditioning, for two-point boundary value codes

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    We present a hybrid mesh selection strategy for use in codes for the numerical solution of two-point boundary value problems. This new mesh strategy is based on the estimation of two parameters which characterise the conditioning of the continuous problem as well as on a standard estimate of the local discretisation error. We have implemented this algorithm in the well known code TWPBVP and have found that the modified code is often considerably more efficient than the original. Another strong advantage of using the new mesh selection algorithm is that it automatically provides an estimate of the conditioning of the discrete problem. This is very valuable (arguably indispensible) for use either in an a posteriori error estimate or, in situations where the conditioning constants are large, as a warning that the accuracy obtained in the solution may be worse than anticipated

    Oral History Interview with Dr. James Cash

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    In this interview, Dr. James Cash discusses his early life in Cleburne and Fort Worth, Texas, and his experiences attending segregated schools in Fort Worth, as the first Black athlete at TCU and in the Southwestern Conference

    Managerial discretion and optimal financing policies with cash flow uncertainty

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    Building on the work of Stulz (1990), this paper analyzes the impact of managerial discretion on optimal leverage within an agency cost model of corporate financing. Under the assumption that stockholders do not know with certainty the mean of the cash flow distribution, we argue that leverage fails to control for the amount of cash the manager can misappropriate in personal projects. We develop a model of a firm’s value maximization problem that predicts that as expected earnings uncertainty increases the firm will decrease its optimal level of borrowing. In a second part, we test this proposition on a panel of non–financial UK firms, by investigating the determinants of firms’ performance and allowing for endogeneity of capital structure decisions. The estimates confirm that earnings uncertainty, as measured by the volatility in monthly consensus forecasts of individual companies’ earnings per share, negatively affects corporate leverage. Furthermore, new empirical support is found to the agency cost view that corporate performance is positively correlated with leverage when poorly managed firms are selected.

    Corporate cash-holding decisions: Amman stock exchange

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    This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Using a panel data analysis of a sample of 80 listed non-financial Jordanian firms during the period from 2000 to 2011, we investigated the corporate cash-holding decision. The firm’s decision to hold cash has come to the fore in last two or three years as a result of the recent global financial crisis, and the impact that this has had on the firms’ ability to raise funds from external sources. There is evidence in the US, for example, that firms have increased their holdings of cash as a result of increasing constraints from external sources. This current study therefore examines this issue from the point of view of a developing economy. We started by investigating the empirical determinants of corporate cash holdings; the results showed that firm size and growth opportunities have no significant effect on corporate cash-holding decisions, while firm’s cash flow, leverage, and liquid assets substitute have a significant negative effect on cash-holding decisions, and profitability and cash dividends have a positive effect on cash-holding decisions. Then we investigated empirically how cash-holding affects the value of corporate firms. Based on Fama and French’s (1998) valuation model and Faulkender and Wang’s (2006) model, the results showed that the marginal value of each Jordanian Dinar (JD) is valued at a discounted value of 0.41 JD; with higher leverage the marginal value of cash is declining, with a higher level of cash the marginal value of cash is increasing and, finally, cash dividends have no significant effect on shareholders’ value. We also investigated empirically how a group of explanatory variables affect a firm’s debt ratio by focusing on the liquidity variable. Results showed that the total debt ratio is positively affected by firm size and is negatively affected by growth opportunities, profitability, assets tangibility and total liquidity, cash, and non-cash liquidity. The long-term debt ratio is positively affected by firm size, non-debt tax shield, asset tangibility, total liquidity, cash, and non-cash liquidity, while the long-term debt ratio is negatively affected by growth opportunities and profitability. For the short-term debt models, the debt ratio is negatively affected by firm size, asset tangibility, and liquidity in its different forms. An investigation into the speed of adjustment showed that Jordanian firms quickly adjusted the total and long-term debt ratio, while they do not have an optimal or target short-term debt ratio

    IMPACTS OF FINANCIAL CHARACTERISTICS AND THE BOOM-BUST CYCLE ON THE FARM INVENTORY-CASH FLOW RELATIONSHIP

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    The sensitivity of farm inventory investment to movements in cash flow is tested. Inventories should be sensitive to shifts in cash flow because inventory investment is readily reversible and inventories are a significant portion of assets. Investment models estimated with Kansas farm panel data indicate that: (a) farms absorb internal finance shocks by adjusting inventories, (b) the inventory investment of livestock and high-debt farms are more sensitive to movements in cash flow than crop and low-debt farms, and (c) inventory investment is more sensitive to cash flow during the 1981-86 bust and the 1987-92 recovery than during the 1975-80 boom.Cash flow, Credit constraints, Farm cycles, Farm inventories, Investment, Investment models, Agricultural Finance,

    Why do firms hold so much cash? A tax-based explanation

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    U.S. corporations hold significant amounts of cash on their balance sheets, and these cash holdings have been justified in the existing empirical literature by transaction costs and precautionary motives. An additional explanation, considered in this study, is that U.S. multinational firms hold cash in their foreign subsidiaries because of the tax costs associated with repatriating foreign income. Consistent with this hypothesis, firms that face higher repatriation tax burdens hold higher levels of cash, hold this cash abroad, and hold this cash in affiliates that trigger high tax costs when repatriating earnings. Estimates indicate that a one standard deviation increase in the tax burden from repatriating foreign income is associated with a 7.9% increase in the ratio of cash to net assets. In addition, certain firms, specifically those that are less financially constrained domestically and those that are more technology intensive, exhibit a higher sensitivity of affiliate cash holdings to repatriation tax burdens.

    Personal Papers (MS 80-0002)

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    Letter from A. H. Blackshear, Jr. To Isaac Herbert Kempner, Jr. enclosing the cash receipts and disbursements for the year ending December 31, 1947 and December 31, 1948 which he thinks that would be found in order
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