We study the interaction between firm uncertainty and corporate policies, emphasizing the role of skewness in the distribution of performance shocks reflected in stock returns. Conditional on volatility and other characteristics, firms with more negatively skewed performance shocks adopt more conservative policies, including greater cash holdings, a lower likelihood of dividend payments and increases in payout levels, and less financial leverage. These relationships are significant and robust for asymmetry proxies constructed from stock return innovations, in contrast to results for measures based on accounting performance shocks. This disparity highlights the importance of asymmetries in long-run performance shocks for corporate policy choices.

我们研究了公司不确定性和公司政策之间的相互作用，强调了偏度在股票收益所反映的业绩冲击分布中的作用。以波动性和其他特征为条件，业绩受到更多负面影响的公司采取更保守的政策，包括更多的现金持有、更低的股息支付和支付水平的增加以及更少的财务杠杆。与基于会计绩效冲击的衡量结果相比，这些关系对于从股票回报创新构建的不对称代理而言是重要且稳健的。这种差异凸显了长期绩效冲击中不对称对公司政策选择的重要性。