The Voice: The Shareholders' Motives Behind Corporate Donations during COVID-19 (former title: Selfish Shareholders: Corporate Donations during COVID-19)

Michele Fioretti, Victor Saint-Jean () and Simon C Smith
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Victor Saint-Jean: ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Simon C Smith: Federal Reserve Board

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Abstract: What motivates shareholders to become prosocial activists? We exploit the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic as a natural experiment to study activism at S&P500 corporations. Prominent individual and family shareholders supported covid-related corporate donations to bolster their reputations as, for the public, they are synonymous with the donating firms. Image gains, instead, do not pass through to institutional shareholders; also, due to the sinking stock market, these shareholders preferred to donate themselves rather than support donations at the firms in their portfolios. Our results point to media attention as a critical channel to incentivize institutional shareholders to support prosocial decisions.

Keywords: Exit and voice; Shareholder activism; Social responsibility; Charitable donations; COVID-19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-02-07
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://sciencespo.hal.science/hal-03386585v2
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Working Paper: The Voice: The Shareholders' Motives Behind Corporate Donations during COVID-19 (former title: Selfish Shareholders: Corporate Donations during COVID-19) (2022)
Working Paper: The Voice: The Shareholders' Motives Behind Corporate Donations during COVID-19 (former title: Selfish Shareholders: Corporate Donations during COVID-19) (2022)
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