Accounting Restatements and Cash Holding Policy

This research is aimed to investigate the effect of accounting restatements on cash holding policy. Firms often hold significant amounts of cash in their balance sheets due to capital market defects such as information asymmetry, agency problems, transaction costs, and external financing costs. On the other hand, accounting restatements can affect the level of cash holdings and its market value. This research is a causal, post-event and applied one. The sample consists of 155 firms listed in the Tehran Stock Exchange during the period from 2009 to 2016. Findings based on the multivariate linear regression analysis show that, according to the strengthened control theory, accounting restatements lead to a decrease in cash holdings. Also, in line with the agency theory, restatements of financial statements will lead to a decrease in the market value of cash holdings from investors' perspective. In other words, investors interpret the accounting restatements as a negative signal.