Individual investors’ dividend tax reform and corporate social responsibility

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of individual investors’ dividend tax on the fulfillment of corporate social responsibility (CSR). By introducing the implementation of dividend tax reform (DTR) for individual investors, we present strong evidence that the reduction of the individual investors' dividend tax significantly reduces the fulfillment of CSR activities related to all stakeholders, except for shareholders. A plausible mechanism is that the reform encourages individual investors to increase holding periods, thereby crowding out institutional investors, which further reduces the firms’ external monitoring pressure. The effect is particularly pronounced for firms with high ownership concentration, low individual investor attention, and low executive ownership. By revealing the unintended effect of the individual investors’ DTR on the firms’ fulfillment of CSR, our study presents a clear policy to regulators concerned with CSR and investor protection.