Table 1.

Definition of variables.

Type	Variable	Symbol	Variable definition
Dependent variable	Corporates' cash holdings	CS	Cash and cash equivalents are divided by total assets
		rCS	CS minus industry average
Independent variables	Red culture influence	RED	The number of red culture enterprises is divided by total population of city
		rRED	The number of red culture enterprises is divided by the city land area
Control variables	Impact of the COVID-19	Covid	Dummy variable, value is 1 in 2020 and 2021, otherwise value is 0
	Corporate scale	Size	The natural logarithm of total assets
	Corporate age	Age	The natural logarithm is obtained by subtracting the year of corporate establishment from the current year plus one.
	Tobin Q value of the corporate	MB	The natural logarithm of the corporate's equity value plus the debt value is divided by the book value of total assets (to avoid negative numbers, the Tobin Q value is multiplied by 10 and then taken as a natural logarithm).
	Operating cash flow	Cf	The net cash flow from the operating activities of the corporate is divided by non-cash assets (total assets minus cash and cash equivalents)
	Dividend and interest payments	PAY	The cash paid by the corporate as dividend profits and interest is divided by operating income.
	The long-term investments	Capx	The cash paid by corporates to purchase fixed assets, intangible, and other long-term assets is divided by the average total assets.
	Corporate growth	Grow	The annual growth rate of business income.
	The size of the board of directors	Bsize	The natural logarithm of the number of directors.
	The proportion of independent directors	Indep	The number of independent directors is divided by the number of directors.
	Economic development level	PGDP	Per capita real GDP of the city.
	Financial development level	FSIZE	The city's loan balance is divided by the city's GDP