On the Association between Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting and the Cost of Equity Capital: Evidence from Taiwan Listed Firms

Abstract

This study examines the association between corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure and the cost of equity capital for listed firms in Taiwan We construct two models to test the association Our empirical results show that firms publishing standalone CSR reports can really have a subsequently lower cost of equity capital and are also rewarded by investors with being asked for a lower premium if they publish the reports for the first time However it is a pity that there is not a negative relationship between CSR reporting by those companies with better CSR performance and their cost of equity capital which is against our expectation This finding might owe to the fact that there are no institutes which consistently evaluate the CSR performance of listed firms in Taiwan We can only judge whether firms have superior CSR performance among their industry peers through the survey of magazine publishers The results show that a firm’s CSR performance does not have a moderating effect on the association between CSR disclosure and the cost of equity capital

Date of Award	2016 Jul 12
Original language	English
Supervisor	Meng-Feng Yen (Supervisor)