非财务信息自愿披露与权益资本成本：基于社会责任报告披露的证据（TAR2011）

题目：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.

研究问题：企业缘何自愿披露社会责任报告，降低资本成本是自愿披露的动因么，以及自愿披露是否真的降低了资本成本（We examine a potential benefit associated with the initiation of voluntary disclosure of CSR activities: a reduction in the cost of equity capit）

研究动机：已有研究更多关注财务信息披露的动因和后果，但是对于非财务信息的关注不足；社会责任披露在过去一段时间内快速发展，引起了高度关注，但是鲜有研究探究企业自愿披露社会责任报告的动因和收益。

研究设计：先研究上一年资本成本高企是否会影响下一年企业自愿披露社会责任报告（Logit模型），再研究上一年自愿披露是否会影响下一年的资本成本变化（线性模型，OLS估计）；样本只选取第一次自愿披露独立的社会责任报告和未披露社会责任报告的公司-年度观测值。

研究发现：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.（总体发现潜在的资本成本降低促使企业自主披露社会责任报告，同时那些较同行具有更好CSR业绩的自愿披露降低了企业的权益资本成本；渠道是吸引专业机构投资者和分析师关注）

研究贡献：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）【通过对比本文工作和已有相似工作的不足，凸显本文的贡献】

值得学习：（1）研究贡献中遇到相似文献如何讨论，可以参考本文的讨论；（2）本文研究X->Y,Z是机制，Z对Y的影响已有较多文献验证，影响机制直接检验X->Z（3）研究故事的拓展，从资本成本高企影响企业自愿披露，到自愿披露切实降低资本成本，再检验自愿披露后是否企业更多参与再融资以及再融资的规模。