Australian companies are among the world's biggest cash hoarders, but the reasons for this aren't what you might think.
And rather than investor-friendly entities in a hurry to distribute profits via dividends, as the popular image holds, domestic corporations are more inclined than most to keep cash on deposit or in government bonds as a buffer against deteriorating conditions or a stash for opportunities as they arise. 
The reason for this, according to a study released on Wednesday by the Reserve Bank of Australia, has as much to do with the changing corporate landscape as frugality and economic cycles.
For example, the smaller, newer companies in information and biotechnology have less access to capital markets and bank finance so are more inclined to sit on cash in case investment opportunities arise or the business conditions sour.
The small exploration companies that proliferated during the 2000s mining boom also fit into this category.
There is also a difference in the behaviour of publicly listed companies and private concerns, according to authors Gianni La Cava and Callan Windsor.
"Our analysis of corporate cash holdings in Australia indicates that public companies hold more cash than otherwise similar private companies, on average, and their cash holdings are more sensitive to cash flows," it says. According to the RBA's own calculations, Australia ranks second among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries in its non-financial companies' share of total assets held in cash.
This averaged around 25 per cent between 1990 and 2014, just behind Israel with about 27 per cent and in front of the US at 21 per cent. At the lower end are Iceland, whose companies hold about 6 per cent of their assets in cash, along with Slovenia, Portugal and Chile.
Even after adjusting for country peculiarities such as industry composition, average company size, growth and earnings volatility, Australia sits at number five, behind Israel, Japan, Ireland and Switzerland.
The RBA has also noted a broad-based secular rise in corporate cash at Australian companies over the past 25 years. Using Australian Bureau of Statistics data, it found that the aggregate cash-to-assets ratio had climbed from 9.5 per cent in 1990 to 13.5 per cent in 2015.