Corporate Social Responsibility and Firm Risk: Theory and Empirical Evidence

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Albuquerque, Rui; Koskinen, Yrjo; Zhang, Chendi
• 署名单位: Boston College; Center for Economic & Policy Research (CEPR); Boston College; University of Calgary; University of Warwick
• 刊物名称: MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0025-1909
• DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2018.3043
• 发表日期: 2019
• 页码: 4451-4469
• 关键词: corporate social responsibility; product differentiation; systematic risk; beta; Firm value; Industry equilibrium

摘要

This paper presents an industry equilibrium model where firms have a choice to engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. We model CSR as an investment to increase product differentiation that allows firms to benefit from higher profit margins. The model predicts that CSR decreases systematic risk and increases firm value and that these effects are stronger for firms with high product differentiation. We find supporting evidence for our predictions. We address a potential endogeneity problem by instrumenting CSR using data on the political affiliation of the firm's home state.