The Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility on a Firm’s Cost of Capital

Abstract

We concentrate on the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the cost of capital, because prior researches often focus on firm performance and research on cost of capital is scarce, despite equity and debt being a primary source of external capital. More specifically, this paper examines the effect of CSR on the cost of equity, cost of debt and weighted average cost of capital (WACC). For this empirical research, we take a comprehensive approach that examines various dimensions related to CSR, namely, environment, society and governance as well as sub-dimensions of society (i.e., employees, related companies, consumers and the community). For a sample of 2,400 Korean firm-year observations from 2011 to 2014, we find that firms with a better CSR score exhibit lower cost of capital (cost of equity, cost of debt and WACC) after controlling for other firm specific determinants. These findings support arguments in the literature that firms with socially responsible practices have higher valuation and lower risk.