The Effect of Corporate Social Responsibility on Firm Value and Performance

In this thesis, I test the effects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on firm valuation and performance from the financial crisis of 2007 to year 2013. Prior research on CSR suggests that CSR is related to firm performance, but the results have not been consistent. My study focuses on the time period following the crisis since trust between firms and stakeholders may be more important following a negative shock. The components of CSR are broken out into environmental, human rights, diversity, community impact, employee relations, product, and corporate governance. I find evidence that at least some measures of firm performance are positively related to CSR. Specifically, I find that a high CSR score is associated with a high return on assets. I also find a positive relation with Tobin's Q in certain model specifications. The components of CSR that hold the greatest weight in terms of ROA are environmental, employee relations, diversity, and product strengths. Given the importance of these financial performance measures, my results provide support for corporate spending on social capital.