Corporate social responsibility and stock return: evidence from China

Abstract. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a recent introduction to the Chinese stock markets, and related research is limited. Using a sample of Chinese listed firms on the A-share market in China, this paper investigates whether CSR ratings can influence the stock returns and how that influence differs across state-owned and non-state-owned firms. Conflicting with existing research in the US and European countries, CSR ratings have no significant influence on stock returns in China, regardless of government ownership. Robustness checks show that CSR does not affect the values of those companies either. I show that the insignificance of government ownership in this paper does not result from selection bias. The explanation for the insignificant results remains an open question.