Cross-Country Gender Bias and Corporate Cash Holdings

We document a novel cross-country relationship between gender bias, as portrayed in a country’s folklore, and firms’ corporate cash holdings, while controlling for firm characteristics, country-specific macroeconomic attributes, governance factors, and cultural differences. We show that firms tend to hold significantly less cash in countries with a more pronounced Male Bias, defined as men being portrayed as more violent, physically active, and independent. We provide evidence that these differences can be attributed to countries with a larger Male Bias exhibiting less patience, consistent with the precautionary motive for holding cash. Our findings highlight the value of utilizing folklore data to comprehensively capture the complex and nuanced effects of cultural dimensions on economic and financial behaviors.