IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v130y2015i4p869-887.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Corporate Social Responsibility and Insider Trading

Author

Listed:
  • Jinhua Cui
  • Hoje Jo
  • Yan Li

Abstract

This study examines the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities on insider trading. While opponents of insider trading claim that the buying or selling of a security by insiders who have access to non-public information is illegal, proponents argue that insider trading improves economic efficiency and fairness when corporate insiders buy and sell stock in their own companies. Based on extensive U.S. data of insider trading and CSR engagement, we find that both the number of insider transactions and the volume of insider trading are positively associated with CSR activities.We also find that legal insider transactions are positively related to CSR engagement even after controlling for potential endogeneitybias and various firm characteristics. Furthermore, our evidence suggests that firms perceive adjustment to CSR dimension of product as being efficient, while adjustment to diversity and environmental CSR as being inefficient. Our results of bad and illegal insider trading proxies are consistent with the interpretation that firms with high CSR ratings do not attempt to engage in unethical or bad insider trading in a significant fashion. Combined together, we consider our empirical evidence supportive of the fairness and efficiency explanation, but not the unfairness and inefficiency hypothesis. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

Suggested Citation

  • Jinhua Cui & Hoje Jo & Yan Li, 2015. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Insider Trading," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 130(4), pages 869-887, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:130:y:2015:i:4:p:869-887
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-014-2113-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10551-014-2113-z
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-014-2113-z?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Henry C. Manne, 1985. "Insider Trading and Property Rights in New Information," Cato Journal, Cato Journal, Cato Institute, vol. 4(3), pages 933-957, Winter.
    2. Hoje Jo & Maretno Harjoto, 2011. "Corporate Governance and Firm Value: The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 103(3), pages 351-383, October.
    3. Cornell, Bradford & Sirri, Erik R, 1992. "The Reaction of Investors and Stock Prices to Insider Trading," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(3), pages 1031-1059, July.
    4. Baron David P & Agus Harjoto Maretno & Jo Hoje, 2011. "The Economics and Politics of Corporate Social Performance," Business and Politics, De Gruyter, vol. 13(2), pages 1-48, August.
    5. Meulbroek, Lisa K, 1992. "An Empirical Analysis of Illegal Insider Trading," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(5), pages 1661-1699, December.
    6. Bettis, J. C. & Coles, J. L. & Lemmon, M. L., 2000. "Corporate policies restricting trading by insiders," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(2), pages 191-220, August.
    7. Sprinkle, Geoffrey B. & Maines, Laureen A., 2010. "The benefits and costs of corporate social responsibility," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 53(5), pages 445-453, September.
    8. Baron, David P. & Agus Harjoto, Maretno & Jo, Hoje, 2011. "The Economics and Politics of Corporate Social Performance," Business and Politics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 13(2), pages 1-46, August.
    9. Paul Gompers & Joy Ishii & Andrew Metrick, 2003. "Corporate Governance and Equity Prices," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(1), pages 107-156.
    10. Merton, Robert C, 1987. "A Simple Model of Capital Market Equilibrium with Incomplete Information," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 42(3), pages 483-510, July.
    11. El Ghoul, Sadok & Guedhami, Omrane & Kwok, Chuck C.Y. & Mishra, Dev R., 2011. "Does corporate social responsibility affect the cost of capital?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(9), pages 2388-2406, September.
    12. Henri Servaes & Ane Tamayo, 2013. "The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Firm Value: The Role of Customer Awareness," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 59(5), pages 1045-1061, May.
    13. Leland, Hayne E, 1992. "Insider Trading: Should It Be Prohibited?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(4), pages 859-887, August.
    14. Hong, Harrison & Kacperczyk, Marcin, 2009. "The price of sin: The effects of social norms on markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(1), pages 15-36, July.
    15. Amir Barnea & Amir Rubin, 2010. "Corporate Social Responsibility as a Conflict Between Shareholders," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 97(1), pages 71-86, November.
    16. Alan D. Jagolinzer & David F. Larcker & Daniel J. Taylor, 2011. "Corporate Governance and the Information Content of Insider Trades," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(5), pages 1249-1274, December.
    17. Heckman, James, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    18. Jo, Hoje & Kim, Yongtae, 2007. "Disclosure frequency and earnings management," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(2), pages 561-590, May.
    19. Hoje Jo & Maretno Harjoto, 2012. "The Causal Effect of Corporate Governance on Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 106(1), pages 53-72, March.
    20. Abagail McWilliams & Donald Siegel, 2000. "Corporate social responsibility and financial performance: correlation or misspecification?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(5), pages 603-609, May.
    21. Sudheer Chava, 2014. "Environmental Externalities and Cost of Capital," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(9), pages 2223-2247, September.
    22. AKTAS, Nihat & DE BODT, Eric & VAN OPPENS, Hervé, 2007. "Evidence of the contribution of legal insider trading to market efficiency," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2007014, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    23. Robert McGee, 2010. "Analyzing Insider Trading from the Perspectives of Utilitarian Ethics and Rights Theory," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 91(1), pages 65-82, January.
    24. Sugato Chakravarty & John J. McConnell, 1997. "An Analysis of Prices, Bid/Ask Spreads, and Bid and Ask Depths Surrounding Ivan Boesky's Illegal Trading in Carnation's Stock," Financial Management, Financial Management Association, vol. 26(2), Summer.
    25. Robert McGee, 2008. "Applying Ethics to Insider Trading," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 77(2), pages 205-217, January.
    26. Goss, Allen & Roberts, Gordon S., 2011. "The impact of corporate social responsibility on the cost of bank loans," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 1794-1810, July.
    27. Carpenter, Jennifer N & Remmers, Barbara, 2001. "Executive Stock Option Exercises and Inside Information," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 74(4), pages 513-534, October.
    28. Salbu, Steven R., 1992. "A Critical Analysis of Misappropriation Theory in Insider Trading Cases," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 2(4), pages 465-477, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Au, Pak Hung & Li, King King & Zhang, Qing & Zhu, Rong, 2023. "The Hidden Costs of Choice in the Labor Market," IZA Discussion Papers 16623, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Jonathan A. Batten & Igor Lončarski & Peter G. Szilagyi, 2018. "When Kamay Met Hill: Organisational Ethics in Practice," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 147(4), pages 779-792, February.
    3. Jingwen Dai & Chao Lu & Yang Yang & Yanhong Zheng, 2018. "Is the Social Responsibility Information Disclosed by the Companies really Valuable?—Evidence from Chinese Stock Price Synchronicity," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-22, October.
    4. Muhammad Hamza Khan & Muhammad Rizwan *, 2021. "The Impact of Stock Price Crash Risk on the Cost of Capital: Empirical Study from China," Journal of Economic Impact, Science Impact Publishers, vol. 3(2), pages 88-97.
    5. Abdelfattah, Tarek & Aboud, Ahmed, 2020. "Tax avoidance, corporate governance, and corporate social responsibility: The case of the Egyptian capital market," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    6. Sander De Groote & Liesbeth Bruynseels & Ann Gaeremynck, 2023. "Are All Directors Treated Equally? Evidence from Director Turnover Following Opportunistic Insider Selling," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 185(1), pages 185-207, June.
    7. Chowdhury, Hasibul & Hodgson, Allan & Hasan, Mostafa Monzur, 2022. "Does a competitive external labour market affect corporate social responsibility? Evidence from industry tournament incentives," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(C).
    8. Johari, Maryam & Hosseini-Motlagh, Seyyed-Mahdi & Rasti-Barzoki, Morteza, 2019. "An evolutionary game theoretic model for analyzing pricing strategy and socially concerned behavior of manufacturers," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 506-525.
    9. El Ghoul, Sadok & Fu, Zhengwei & Guedhami, Omrane & Kim, Yongwon, 2024. "Do insiders profit from public environmental information? Evidence from insider trading," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    10. Shang, Delei & Yin, Guangzhi & Li, Xiaoshuang & Li, Yaoji & Jiang, Changbao & Kang, Xiangtao & Liu, Chao & Zhang, Chi, 2015. "Analysis for Green Mine (phosphate) performance of China: An evaluation index system," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(P2), pages 71-84.
    11. Chao Lu & Xuetong Zhao & Jingwen Dai, 2018. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Insider Trading: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-17, September.
    12. Eastmure, Elizabeth & Cummins, Steven & Sparks, Leigh, 2020. "Non-market strategy as a framework for exploring commercial involvement in health policy: A primer," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 262(C).
    13. Sarkki, Simo & Karjalainen, Timo P., 2015. "Ecosystem service valuation in a governance debate: Practitioners' strategic argumentation on forestry in northern Finland," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 16(C), pages 13-22.
    14. Rwan El‐Khatib & Dobrina Jandik & Tomas Jandik, 2021. "Network centrality, connections, and social capital: Evidence from CEO insider trading gains," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 56(3), pages 433-457, August.
    15. Subramaniam, Mohan & Iyer, Bala & Venkatraman, Venkat, 2019. "Competing in digital ecosystems," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 83-94.
    16. Fan, Cunbin & Zou, Guohao & Wang, Jiawen, 2024. "M&A performance commitments and insider trading: ‘Listen to their words’ or ‘watch their actions’?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    17. Li, Tao & Wang, Yan & Li, Haomin, 2023. "Corporate social responsibility and insider trading profitability: Evidence from an emerging market," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    18. Zhang, Junru & Zhang, Zhaoyong, 2021. "CSR, Media and Stock Illiquidity: Evidence from Chinese Listed Financial Firms," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chowdhury, Hasibul & Hodgson, Allan & Hasan, Mostafa Monzur, 2022. "Does a competitive external labour market affect corporate social responsibility? Evidence from industry tournament incentives," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(C).
    2. Maretno Harjoto & Hoje Jo & Yongtae Kim, 2017. "Is Institutional Ownership Related to Corporate Social Responsibility? The Nonlinear Relation and Its Implication for Stock Return Volatility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 146(1), pages 77-109, November.
    3. Li Cai & Jinhua Cui & Hoje Jo, 2016. "Corporate Environmental Responsibility and Firm Risk," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 139(3), pages 563-594, December.
    4. Maretno Harjoto & Hoje Jo, 2015. "Legal vs. Normative CSR: Differential Impact on Analyst Dispersion, Stock Return Volatility, Cost of Capital, and Firm Value," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 128(1), pages 1-20, April.
    5. Sung C. Bae & Kiyoung Chang & Ha-Chin Yi, 2018. "Corporate social responsibility, credit rating, and private debt contracting: new evidence from syndicated loan market," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 50(1), pages 261-299, January.
    6. Kais Bouslah & Lawrence Kryzanowski & Bouchra M’Zali, 2018. "Social Performance and Firm Risk: Impact of the Financial Crisis," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 149(3), pages 643-669, May.
    7. Hoje Jo & Haejung Na, 2012. "Does CSR Reduce Firm Risk? Evidence from Controversial Industry Sectors," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 110(4), pages 441-456, November.
    8. Jan Diebecker & Friedrich Sommer, 2017. "The impact of corporate sustainability performance on information asymmetry: the role of institutional differences," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 11(2), pages 471-517, March.
    9. Bae, Sung C. & Chang, Kiyoung & Yi, Ha-Chin, 2018. "Are more corporate social investments better? Evidence of non-linearity effect on costs of U.S. Bank loans," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 82-96.
    10. Jinhua Cui & Hoje Jo & Haejung Na, 2018. "Does Corporate Social Responsibility Affect Information Asymmetry?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 148(3), pages 549-572, March.
    11. Bai Xue & Zhuang Zhang & Pingli Li, 2020. "Corporate environmental performance, environmental management and firm risk," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 1074-1096, March.
    12. Maretno Harjoto & Indrarini Laksmana, 2018. "The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Risk Taking and Firm Value," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 151(2), pages 353-373, August.
    13. Mohammed Benlemlih & Mohammad Bitar, 2018. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Investment Efficiency," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 148(3), pages 647-671, March.
    14. Mohammed Benlemlih, 2017. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Firm Debt Maturity," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 144(3), pages 491-517, September.
    15. Hoje Jo & Maretno Harjoto, 2012. "The Causal Effect of Corporate Governance on Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 106(1), pages 53-72, March.
    16. Li, Shihan & Liu, Qingfu & Lu, Lei & Zheng, Kaixin, 2022. "Green policy and corporate social responsibility: Empirical analysis of the Green Credit Guidelines in China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    17. Hassan, M. Kabir & Chiaramonte, Laura & Dreassi, Alberto & Paltrinieri, Andrea & Piserà, Stefano, 2023. "Equity costs and risks in emerging markets: Are ESG and Sharia principles complementary?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    18. Dutordoir, Marie & Strong, Norman C. & Sun, Ping, 2018. "Corporate social responsibility and seasoned equity offerings," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 158-179.
    19. Sadok El Ghoul & Omrane Guedhami & Hakkon Kim & Kwangwoo Park, 2018. "Corporate Environmental Responsibility and the Cost of Capital: International Evidence," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 149(2), pages 335-361, May.
    20. Bouslah, Kais & Kryzanowski, Lawrence & M’Zali, Bouchra, 2013. "The impact of the dimensions of social performance on firm risk," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 1258-1273.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:130:y:2015:i:4:p:869-887. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.