非金融公司的货币需求

Money demand by non-financialLuca Nocciola Disclaimer:This paper should not be reported as representing the views of the European Central Bank(ECB). The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the ECB. Abstract We document empirically the money demand by European non-financial corporations byexploiting a unique and brand-new survey on their cash usage in a stress period.We alsoassess: (i) the relation between cash held and firm size; and (ii) estimate point values of cashholdings and carry out statistical comparisons along the sectoral and country dimensions.First, we find that cash holdings are inversely related to firm size, providing additional evi- Keywords: Monetary economics; Cash demand; Store of value; Precautionary savings; Fi- JEL classification: D22, D25, E41, G01, G32 Non-technical summary Several articles and surveys document the store-of-value function of cash for consumers in crisisand non-crisis times, outlining the insurance role of cash against a credit supply shock and/orrisk of bank defaults. Other papers document the store-of-value role of cash for firms in crisis We exploit a unique and brand-new survey on cash usage by European companies conductedby the European Central Bank (ECB) in a stress period to:1) assess the relation betweencash held and firm size; and 2) estimate point values of average cash holdings and carry outstatistical comparisons along the sectoral and country dimensions. This paper contributes to the Our findings point out that firms belonging to certain sectors, e.g. hotels, hold more cash,which, despite government support, suffered strongly the reduced income during the COVID-19pandemic. We provide aggregate evidence that 1) cash in circulation accelerated at the onset ofthe pandemic; 2) this acceleration was driven by a precautionary demand. However, to confirm 1Introduction The functions of cash have been recently further investigated by the literature.1 Several articlesdocument the store-of-value function of cash for consumers in crisis times (see Faella & Zamora-P´erez (2025), Roesl & Seitz (2022), Jonkeret al.(2022), Roesl & Seitz (2021), Zamora-P´erez(2021), Ashworth & Goodhart (2021), Ashworth & Goodhart (2020a), Stix (2013), Ramirez(2009)), outlining the insurance role of cash against a (potential) credit supply shock and/orrisk of bank defaults.2Cusbert & Rohling (2013) show that part of higher cash demand canbe attributed to reduced interest rates, i.e.the opportunity cost of holding cash, but themajor part may be due to precautionary holdings. Similarly, Rainone (2022) reports that cashdemand (as proxied by net withdrawals) increased substantially in Italy in 2010-2018 afterinterest rates approached the effective lower bound, however attributing this increase mostlyto transactional demand, as cash holdings did not increase as much.Surveys document thestore-of-value function of cash for consumers more generally (see ECB (2020) and Esselink & even after a crisis is over (boosting their investment capacity), see Josephet al.(2020) andDuchinet al.(2010).5 In this paper, we add to this literature and assess empirically the money demand by Europeannon-financial corporations, in particular their cash demand, i.e., currency (banknotes and coins)demand, to date the only available central bank money at the retail level, in a stress period, like the COVID-19 pandemic. We exploit a unique and brand-new survey on cash usage by Europeancompanies conducted by the ECB (ECB (2022)) to: 1) assess the relation between cash holdingsand firm size, as measured by the number of employees; and 2) estimate point values of average This paper contributes to the literature in several ways. First, it provides additional evidence on the inverse relation between cash holdings and firm size, suggesting that SMEs tend to store more cash relative to their larger peers.8 of European firms for store-of-value purposes.Cash holdings may be seen as a prudentialinstrument providing firms with a protection against a (potential) credit supply shock. Third, it adds to the discussion on the design of a CBDC. Some features of cash make it unique untilnow, e.g. anonymity, real-time settlement and also physicality/offline property (see, e.g., Tarlin (2021), Nocciola & Zamora-P´erez (2024)). Firms are still holding physical cash for store-of-value This article is structured as follows:section 2 describes the data, section 3 outlines themethodology, section 4 reports the results, section 5 discusses some anecdotal evidence about 2Data We exploit a survey on cash usage by European firms conducted by the ECB (ECB (2022)).The survey is run for purposes that go beyond the scope of this article. It aims at getting an overview on companies’ strategic view on the current and future use and acceptance of cash.In particular, it aims at:1) understanding acceptance of and satisfaction with cash (versus Our first key variable of interest is ”cash ho