Does Social Responsibility Always Begin at Home? The Relation Between Firms’ Pension Policies and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Activities

Abstract

Pension freezes are highly visible corporate actions with the potential to hurt the firms’ reputation as a “responsible” employer. We document that firms sponsoring defined-benefit pensions step up CSR engagement following announcements of defined-benefit pension freezes. Freeze firms also increase their usage of CSR-related keywords in public disclosures following the freeze. We find a stronger CSR response to relatively more severe freezes, to more controversial cash-balance conversions, and in larger sponsors. This is consistent with CSR increases being motivated by the need for reputation-repair. We also find that CSR increases following an accounting rule change that makes pension deficits more visible. Collectively, our findings highlight an important driver of CSR: the need to restore or manage reputation, especially in the face of corporate actions that can hurt stakeholders.