Corporate Social Responsibility / Harrison Hong, Edward P. Shore.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hong, Harrison.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Shore, Edward P.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w30771.

NBER working paper series no. w30771

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2022.

Summary:

Is shareholder interest in corporate social responsibility driven by pecuniary motives (abnormal rates of return) or non-pecuniary ones (willingness to sacrifice returns to address various firm externalities)? To answer this question, we categorize the literature into seven tests: (1) costs of capital, (2) performance of portfolios, (3) ownership by types of institutions, (4) surveys and experiments, (5) managerial motives, (6) shareholder proposals, and (7) firm inclusion in responsibility indices. These tests and the most recent proposals data predominantly indicate that shareholders are driven by non-pecuniary motives. To stimulate further research on welfare implications for global warming, we assess whether estimates of the returns shareholders are willing to sacrifice (or, 'greeniums'), along with the increasing amounts of assets pledged to firms that become sustainable, are consistent with the growth of aggregate investments in the decarbonization sector.

Notes:

Print version record

December 2022.