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On the Economics of Corporate Responsibility

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This paper seeks to explore the economic mechanisms behind corporate social responsibility (CSR) in a micro-economic model of the firm. The motivation of this study is to shed some light on the potential causes of the observed phenomena of voluntary over-compliance among firms. We consider a few diferent models, both static and dynamic, to investigate how various assumptions about costs and benefits may aspect CSR behavior through a stock of goodwill capital. Our analysis show that in optimum, the profit maximizing firm must balance costs and benefits of CSR. From a cursory look into the CSR literature, we find evidence that some of the hypotheses that can be derived from the models in this paper can be verified empirically.

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  • Lundgren, Tommy, 2007. "On the Economics of Corporate Responsibility," Sustainable Investment and Corporate Governance Working Papers 2007/3, Sustainable Investment Research Platform.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhb:sicgwp:2007_003
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Lyon,Thomas P. & Maxwell,John W., 2004. "Corporate Environmentalism and Public Policy," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521819473.
    2. Lundgren, Tommy & Sjostrom, Magnus, 2001. "A flexible specification of adjustment costs in dynamic factor demand models," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 145-150, August.
    3. Tommy Lundgren, 2003. "A Real Options Approach to Abatement Investments and Green Goodwill," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 25(1), pages 17-31, May.
    4. Geoffrey Heal, 2005. "Corporate Social Responsibility: An Economic and Financial Framework," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 30(3), pages 387-409, July.
    5. Eriksson, Clas, 2004. "Can green consumerism replace environmental regulation?--a differentiated-products example," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 281-293, September.
    6. Gustav Feichtinger & Richard F. Hartl & Suresh P. Sethi, 1994. "Dynamic Optimal Control Models in Advertising: Recent Developments," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 40(2), pages 195-226, February.
    7. Bismut, Jean-Michel, 1975. "Growth and optimal intertemporal allocation of risks," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 239-257, April.
    8. Charles S. Tapiero, 1975. "On-Line and Adaptive Optimum Advertising Control by a Diffusion Approximation," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 23(5), pages 890-907, October.
    9. Kamien, Morton I. & Schwartz, Nancy L., 1971. "Sufficient conditions in optimal control theory," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 3(2), pages 207-214, June.
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    1. Lambertini, Luca & Tampieri, Alessandro, 2015. "Incentives, performance and desirability of socially responsible firms in a Cournot oligopoly," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 40-48.
    2. Alexandra ZBUCHEA & Florina PÎNZARU, 2017. "Tailoring CSR Strategy to Company Size?," Management Dynamics in the Knowledge Economy, College of Management, National University of Political Studies and Public Administration, vol. 5(3), pages 415-437, September.
    3. Lundgren, Tommy & Olsson, Rickard, 2008. "How Bad is Bad News? Assessing the Effects of Environmental Incidents on Firm Value," Sustainable Investment and Corporate Governance Working Papers 2008/1, Sustainable Investment Research Platform.
    4. Francisco J. Callado†Muñoz & Natalia Utrero†González, 2011. "Does It Pay to Be Socially Responsible? Evidence from Spain's Retail Banking Sector," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 17(4), pages 755-787, September.
    5. Semenova, Natalia & Hassel, Lars & Nilsson, Henrik, 2009. "The Value Relevance of Environmental and Social Performance: Evidence from Swedish SIX 300 Companies," Sustainable Investment and Corporate Governance Working Papers 2009/4, Sustainable Investment Research Platform.
    6. Luca Lambertini & Alessandro Tampieri, 2012. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Firms’ Ability to Collude," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Sabri Boubaker & Duc Khuong Nguyen (ed.), Board Directors and Corporate Social Responsibility, chapter 9, pages 167-178, Palgrave Macmillan.
    7. Semenova, Natalia & Hassel, Lars, 2008. "Industry Risk Moderates the Relation between Environmental and Financial Performance," Sustainable Investment and Corporate Governance Working Papers 2008/2, Sustainable Investment Research Platform.
    8. Piotr Bolibok, 2021. "The Impact of Social Responsibility Performance on the Value Relevance of Financial Data in the Banking Sector: Evidence from Poland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-19, October.
    9. Koustubh Kanti Ray & Subrat Kumar Mitra, 2018. "Firm’s Financial Performance and Sustainability Efforts: Application of Classifier Models," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 19(3), pages 722-736, June.

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    Keywords

    corporate social responsibility; dynamics; goodwill; uncertainty;
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