Sustainability engagement in Latin America firms and cost of equity

Purpose: Corporate social responsibility (CSR) actions are expected to reduce information asymmetries and increase legitimacy among the stakeholders of the company, which consequently should have a positive impact on the financial conditions of the firm. Hence, the objective of this paper is to find empirical evidence on the negative relationship between sustainable behavior and the cost of equity, in the specific context of Latin America. To address this issue, some proxies and moderating variables for sustainability are used in our study. Design/methodology/approach: The regression model considers a sample with 252 publicly trading firms and 2,772 firm-year observations, from 2008 to 2018. The generalized method of moments is used to avoid endogeneity problems. Findings: The study finds evidence that firms with higher environmental, social and governance activities disclosed by sustainability reports and assured by external providers decrease their cost of equity, especially if they are in an integrated market as MILA. This finding confirms that agency conflicts between firm's management and stakeholders diminish with higher CSR transparency, leading to a lower cost of capital. Originality/value: Our research is unique and valuable as, to our knowledge, it is the first study to analyze the impact of sustainable behavior and the cost of equity from companies operating in Latin America.