Impact of board attributes on corporate cash holdings: evidence from India

This paper examines the impact of board of director attributes on the cash holdings of Indian listed firms. The study uses a sample of non-financial firms listed on the S&P BSE 500 index from 2009 to 2019. This study focuses on five board of director attributes namely, board size, board independence, board busyness, women directors and duality to investigate their impact on cash holdings. The findings reveal that board size, women directors and duality significantly affect the cash holdings of Indian firms. However, board independence and board busyness are insignificant. Overall, the study advocates that board of directors play a monitoring role and prevent managers from accumulating and using cash reserves for personal benefits. Thus, this study empirically confirms that board of director attributes affect corporate cash holdings. This study enriches the literature on determinants of corporate cash holdings.