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Corporate Actions as Moral Issues

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  • Zwetelina Iliewa
  • Elisabeth Kempf
  • Oliver Spalt

Abstract

We study how a representative sample of the U.S. population evaluates a broad range of corporate actions from a nonpecuniary perspective. Our core findings, based on large-scale online surveys, are that (i) self-reported nonpecuniary concerns are large, both for stock market investors and non-investors; (ii) concerns about the treatment of workers and CEO pay rank highest, higher than concerns about workforce diversity and fossil energy usage; (iii) moral universalism (Enke (2024)) emerges as a key driver of nonpecuniary preferences, explaining substantial variation both across participants as well as across corporate actions. Combined, our findings provide new evidence on the importance of moral concerns as a driver of nonpecuniary preferences in the context of corporate actions.

Suggested Citation

  • Zwetelina Iliewa & Elisabeth Kempf & Oliver Spalt, 2025. "Corporate Actions as Moral Issues," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2025_649, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2025_649
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    File URL: https://www.crctr224.de/research/discussion-papers/archive/dp649
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    corporate actions; non-pecuniary preferences; social responsibility;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General
    • G40 - Financial Economics - - Behavioral Finance - - - General
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making

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