El Ghoul, Guedhami, and Kim (2016)
El Ghoul, Sadok, Omrane Guedhami, and Yongtae Kim. “Country-Level Institutions, Firm Value, and the Role of Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives.” Journal of International Business Studies, March 2016.
From the authors' abstract: "Using a large sample of 11,672 firm-year observations representing 2,445 unique firms from 53 countries during 2003-2010 and controlling for firm-level unobservable heterogeneity, we find supportive evidence that CSR is more positively related to firm value in countries with weaker market institutions. We also provide evidence on the channels through which CSR initiatives reduce transaction costs. We find that CSR is associated with improved access to financing in countries with weaker equity and credit markets, greater investment and lower default risk in countries with more limited business freedom, and longer trade credit period and higher future sales growth in countries with weaker legal institutions."
LK note: Significant implications, especially for investors in emerging markets. Asset4 and Computstat databases.