Research On The Influence Of Social Responsibility Disclosure On Corporate Capital Structure

Social responsibility information disclosure is an important means for enterprises to fulfill their social responsibilities and strengthen communication with stakeholders.It is also an important business strategy,which has an important impact on the financial performance of the company.Based on the theory of capital structure and stakeholders,this paper takes the data sample of listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges for the period of 2008-2016 as the research object,and deeply explored the relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR)and capital structure.First of all,because the behavior of the company in compiling CSR reports is not random but influenced by individual characteristics of the company,our empirical must consider potential endogenous issues.Therefore,this paper used the PSM model to reconstruct the sample,excluded the unobservable differences between the company that issued the CSR report and the company that did not publish the CSR report before releasing the social responsibility report,ensuring that the relevant missing variables did not affect our results.Secondly,this article empirically studied the effect of CSR on the leverage level of the company.The disclosure of CSR information can increase the transparency of the company,reduce the information asymmetry between stakeholders and management,establish a good reputation among stakeholders,and reduce the risk of the company,making stakeholders to allow the company higher leverage.The empirical results of this paper support the hypothesis that there is a positive relationship between CSR and leverage.CSR makes a company's book leverage ratio(market leverage ratio)increase by an average of 1.01-2.23(1.20-4.08)basis points.In addition,the impact of disclosure of CSR information on companies is a long-term process,so the impact on long-term leverage is much greater than short-term leverage.Then the research examined the impact of CSR on the pace of capital structure adjustment.According to the preferential financing theory,the adverse selection cost effect is the main factor of the capital structure.The disclosure of CSR information can alleviate the concerns of lenders by lowering the degree of information asymmetry and improving corporate transparency,so the lenders allow companies to reduce the speed of capital structure adjustment.This article further finds that when a company is in a financial deficit,disclosure of CSR information can not only reduce the rate of reducing leverage,but also increase the speed of promoting leverage.This paper supplements research in related fields,innovatively uses the PSM method to control endogenous problems,deeply explores the internal mechanism of the impact of disclosure of social responsibility information on the capital structure,and provide corresponding policy recommendations with macro and micro perspectives for both regulators and companies.