初生牛犊不怕虎吗——基于高管年龄与公司现金持有量的研究

Is the Newborn Calf Not Afraid of Tigers? A Study on the Age of Senior Executives and a Company’s Cash Holdings

利用声誉效应理论和过度自信理论检验高管年龄是否影响公司现金持有量。研究发现,高管年龄与公司现金持有量显著负相关,其原因是具有高风险偏好的年纪较大的高管更有可能在投资支出之中消耗现金。进一步地,本文还结合公司业绩来鉴别声誉效应理论和过度自信理论。结果表明,高管年龄增长有利于公司业绩的增加,这符合过度自信理论的预期说明年纪较大高管的高风险偏好对企业发展可能是有益的。研究结论拓展了现有关于高管特征与公司现金持有量的研究,提供了经济增长依赖于风险承担的微观证据,对企业聘任高管时注意高管异质性与公司特征之间的匹配以及企业对风险性投资项目的选择都具有一定的现实启发意义。

The reputation and overconfidence theories are adopted to examine whether the age of executives affects a company’s cash holdings,and corporate performance is used to gauge the two theories. The study found that executive age has a significantly negative correlation with corporate cash holdings because older executives with a high risk preference are more likely to use cash as an investment expenditure. An increase in executive age is beneficial to a company’s performance,which is in line with the expectations of overconfidence theory,and the high risk preferences of older executives may also be beneficial to a company’s development. The conclusions of this study are particularly applicable when a company places an emphasis on the match between an executive candidate’s heterogeneity and the company’s characteristics during the hiring process and also for the company’s choice of venture investment projects.