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This paper investigates the reason for corporate cash holdings. In the literature, there is a debate about the motives for these cash holdings (transaction cost theory or managerial opportunism thesis). To obtain new evidence, we focus on the consequences of excessive cash holdings on firm performance, using firm-level data of 4515 firms from Canada, France, Germany, Great-Britain and the USA over the period 1989-2002. We implement a bivariate probit model to take into account the potential joint determination of cash holdings and performance of the firm. We conclude that excessive cash holdings lead to poor firm performances, a result clearly in favor of the managerial opportunism thesis. Classification JEL : C33, G32.