This paper assesses whether shareholders drive the environmental and social (E&S) performance of firms worldwide. Across 41 countries, we find that institutional ownership is positively associated with E&S performance with additional tests suggesting this relation is causal. Our evidence shows...

In the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis, legislators, regulators and journalists have focused on "bad" corporate governance as one root of the evil visited on the global financial system, and "good" or "improved" corporate governance as one of the remedies for repair. This short writing...

We examine the ability of a socially responsible investment index to effect firms' compliance with best-practice climate-change management and the subsequent impact on their carbon emissions. Using a quasi-experimental setting involving an international sample of large public companies we show...

During the 2008-2009 financial crisis, firms with high social capital, measured as corporate social responsibility (CSR) intensity, had stock returns that were four to seven percentage points higher than firms with low social capital. High-CSR firms also experienced higher profitability, growth,...

A firm's corporate social responsibility (CSR) practice and its country's legal origin are strongly correlated. This relation is valid for various CSR ratings coming from several large datasets that comprise more than 23,000 large companies from 114 countries. We find that CSR is more strongly...

The prior literature establishes that trust affects investment, however, whether it leads to investment efficiency is unaddressed. This study seeks to investigate the relationship between societal trust and corporate investment efficiency. The study documents a positive association between...

This study investigates the influence of background diversity of bank board members on performance and risk. Using data from Indonesian banks from 2001 to 2011 covering 4200 individual year observations and 21 ethnic groups, we estimate the degree of diversity by considering various aspects...

After the financial crisis, there has been considerable debate about the role of corporations in society. It has become broadly accepted that corporations - particularly the world's largest publicly traded corporations – need to be governed with respect for the society and the environment....

This study examines the role of codes of ethics in reducing the extent to which managers act opportunistically in reporting earnings. Corporate codes of ethics, by clarifying the boundaries of ethical corporate behaviors and making relevant social norms more salient, have the potential to deter...