Factors Associated with the Year-End Decline in Working Capital
研究发现企业第四季度营运资本水平显著下降，随后在第一季度回升，这种下降与薪酬基准和分析师现金流预测相关，行业主导企业更明显。
Working capital is an important indicator of firm operational efficiency. All else being equal, lower levels signal greater efficiency. Managers are thus likely to be motivated to report lower levels of working capital at times of greater external attention. We find that working capital levels decrease in the fourth fiscal quarter significantly more than expected, conditional on seasonal changes in economic activity. The decrease subsequently reverses in the following first fiscal quarter. Evidence indicates that firms manage down year-end working capital through transactions that increase year-end operating cash flow and that firms spread this activity over all working capital accounts. Finally, the temporary decrease in year-end working capital is correlated with compensation benchmarks and analysts’ annual cash flow forecasts. The temporary drop is also more pronounced for firms with industry dominance. This paper was accepted by Mary Barth, accounting.