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The price of corporate social irresponsibility in seasoned equity offerings: International evidence

Ho, Choy Yeing (Chloe), Eliza Wu and Jing Yu

The British Accounting Review, 2024, vol. 56, issue 4

Abstract: We examine the impact of poor corporate social responsibility engagement signalled through negative environmental and social (E&S) incidents on equity financing via seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) across 25 countries. The results show that negative E&S incidents significantly aggravate SEO underpricing, thereby increasing the cost of raising equity capital. Managers appear to take the adverse effects into consideration as reflected in the reduced likelihood of issuing equity following the experience of negative E&S incidents. Further analysis shows that such adverse pricing effects are stronger for firms that are subject to significant social and regulatory penalties for their E&S misconducts, suggesting that negative E&S incidents increase corporate reputational losses and elevate regulatory risk. Finally, there are rich cross-country variations in the SEO pricing effects of E&S risks with legal investor protection and national culture playing an important role in influencing the pricing of E&S risk.

Keywords: Corporate social responsibility; ESG risk; Seasoned equity offerings; Event study (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G14 G15 G18 G51 G52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:bracre:v:56:y:2024:i:4:s0890838924001082

DOI: 10.1016/j.bar.2024.101369

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