[Truncated thesis] This thesis investigates the relevance of Jensen’s (1986) free cash flow theory to the market for corporate control in Australia. Jensen posits that firms generating cash in excess of that required to fund positive NPV projects face greater agency problems as the free cash flow exacerbates the conflict of interest between shareholders and managers. One implication from Jensen’s free cash flow theory is that firms with high levels of free cash flow are more likely to initiate takeovers that are value-decreasing. There are two practical issues in testing Jensen’s theory; first, constructing an appropriate proxy for free cash flow and secondly, identifying firms with free cash flow. These issues are addressed directly in the first of the two essays that comprise this thesis. The first essay develops and assesses the merits of four operational measures for free cash. One of them is a stock measure while the others are flow measures. The stock measure is included because previous studies have mostly used the stock measure of cash when identifying firms rich in free cash (henceforth, cash rich firms), despite that Jensen (1986) has made explicit reference to free cash flow. We test the validity of this approach by investigating whether stock measures of free cash coincide with flow measures. Our results reveal that the stock and flow measures of free cash give rise to quite different lists of cash rich firms. This is an important empirical contribution of the thesis. Given the lack of definitive criteria for deciding which operational measure of free cash flow is most appropriate, we identify multiple sets of free cash flow firms based on the different operational measures developed. For each operational definition, two methods are used to identify cash rich firms. The first method defines a firm as cash rich if its cash variable ranks in the tenth percentile. The second method defines firms as cash rich if their cash variable value is greater than one and a half standard deviations of the value predicted by a model.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/221207 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Lin, Suzanne Ching-Fang |
| Publisher | University of Western Australia. School of Economics and Commerce |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Copyright Suzanne Ching-Fang Lin, http://www.itpo.uwa.edu.au/UWA-Computer-And-Software-Use-Regulations.html |
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