題目：Voluntary Nonfinancial Disclosure and the Cost of Equity Capital: The Initiation of Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting

摘要：We examine a potential benefit associated with the initiation of voluntary disclosure of corporate social responsibility （CSR）activities: a reduction in firms’ cost of equity capital. We find that firms with a high cost of equity capital in the previous year tend to initiate disclosure of CSR activities in the current year and that initiating firms with superior social responsibility performance enjoy a subsequent reduction in the cost of equity capital. Further, initiating firms with superior social responsibility performance attract dedicated institutional investors and analyst coverage. Moreover, these analysts achieve lower absolute forecast errors and dispersion. Finally, we find that firms exploit the benefit of a lower cost of equity capital associated with the initiation of CSR disclosure. Initiating firms are more likely than non-initiating firms to raise equity capital following the initiations; among firms raising equity capital, initiating firms raise a significantly larger amount than do non-initiating firms.

研究問(wèn)題：企業(yè)緣何自愿披露社會(huì)責(zé)任報(bào)告，降低資本成本是自愿披露的動(dòng)因么，以及自愿披露是否真的降低了資本成本（We examine a potential benefit associated with the initiation of voluntary disclosure of CSR activities: a reduction in the cost of equity capit）

研究動(dòng)機(jī)：已有研究更多關(guān)注財(cái)務(wù)信息披露的動(dòng)因和后果，但是對(duì)于非財(cái)務(wù)信息的關(guān)注不足；社會(huì)責(zé)任披露在過(guò)去一段時(shí)間內(nèi)快速發(fā)展，引起了高度關(guān)注，但是鮮有研究探究企業(yè)自愿披露社會(huì)責(zé)任報(bào)告的動(dòng)因和收益。

研究設(shè)計(jì)：先研究上一年資本成本高企是否會(huì)影響下一年企業(yè)自愿披露社會(huì)責(zé)任報(bào)告（Logit模型），再研究上一年自愿披露是否會(huì)影響下一年的資本成本變化（線性模型，OLS估計(jì)）；樣本只選取第一次自愿披露獨(dú)立的社會(huì)責(zé)任報(bào)告和未披露社會(huì)責(zé)任報(bào)告的公司-年度觀測(cè)值。

研究發(fā)現(xiàn)：Our analyses provide four important insights.?

First, firms with a high cost of equity capital in the previous year are significantly more likely than others to initiate standalone CSR disclosures.?

Second, the cost of equity capital decreases for CSR-initiating firms with superior CSR performance.?

Third, CSR-initiating firms with superior CSR performance attract dedicated institutional investors and analyst coverage. Moreover, these analysts have more accurate forecasts and lower forecast dispersion.?

Finally, corroborating the result on the relation between CSR disclosure and the cost of equity capital, CSR-initiating firms are significantly more likely than non-initiating firms to conduct seasoned equity offerings （SEOs） in the two years following these initiations and among firms conducting SEOs, CSR-initiating firms raise a significantly larger amount of capital than do non-initiating firms.?

Overall, our evidence is consistent with our predictions that a potential reduction in the cost of equity capital motivates firms to publish standalone CSR reports and that CSR disclosure by firms with superior CSR performance leads to a lower cost of equity capital.（總體發(fā)現(xiàn)潛在的資本成本降低促使企業(yè)自主披露社會(huì)責(zé)任報(bào)告，同時(shí)那些較同行具有更好CSR業(yè)績(jī)的自愿披露降低了企業(yè)的權(quán)益資本成本；渠道是吸引專業(yè)機(jī)構(gòu)投資者和分析師關(guān)注）

研究貢獻(xiàn)：This study is the first to investigate the impact of standalone voluntary disclosure of general CSR issues on the cost of equity capital.We contribute to the literature by extending the traditional research on voluntary disclosure beyond the narrow focus of financial disclosure. Our study is related to, but differs from, the work of Plumlee et al. （2008） and Richardson and Welker （2001）【通過(guò)對(duì)比本文工作和已有相似工作的不足，凸顯本文的貢獻(xiàn)】

值得學(xué)習(xí)：（1）研究貢獻(xiàn)中遇到相似文獻(xiàn)如何討論，可以參考本文的討論；（2）本文研究X->Y,Z是機(jī)制，Z對(duì)Y的影響已有較多文獻(xiàn)驗(yàn)證，影響機(jī)制直接檢驗(yàn)X->Z（3）研究故事的拓展，從資本成本高企影響企業(yè)自愿披露，到自愿披露切實(shí)降低資本成本，再檢驗(yàn)自愿披露后是否企業(yè)更多參與再融資以及再融資的規(guī)模。