The observed use (and indeed tremendous growth in volume) of forward contracts, futures, options, and swaps as hedges against interest rate risk, foreign exchange risk, and commodity price risk indicates that hedging does add value to the firm. The purpose this research was to empirically examine the value of off-balance-sheet hedging. The benefits of off-balance-sheet hedging were found to accrue from reducing (1) taxes, (2) expected financial distress costs, and (3) agency costs. Taxes. Hedging reduces the firm's tax liability by reducing the variability in taxable income. The value of hedging to the firm is a positive function of the convexity of the tax function and the variability of taxable income. Expected Financial Distress Costs. The value of hedging is a positive function of the degree to which hedging reduces the probability of financial distress and the costs of financial distress. Agency Cost. Due to the fact that bondholders and some managers hold fixed claims while shareholders hold variable claims, shareholders desire more risky projects than do bondholders or managers. Hedging reduces this conflict by allowing shareholders to undertake higher risk projects while protecting the holders of fixed claims. Firms can achieve the same benefits of hedging by using alternative strategies. Among the various alternatives to hedging are modifying the firm's capital structure, purchasing insurance, and modifying dividend policy. The amount of off-balance-sheet hedging activity undertaken by a specific firm is therefore a function of the value of hedging to the firm and the degree to which the firm has used alternatives to hedging. Using a regression analysis, this paper provides empirical evidence on the preceding relations. This study provides (1) the first empirical evidence into the reasons for a value-maximizing firm using off-balance-sheet hedging instruments, and (2) empirical insights into the way in which the firm's hedging decision interrelates with the capital structure, dividend, and insurance decisions.