Broad bond rating change and irresponsible corporate social responsibility activities

This study investigates the association between whether firms are near a broad bond rating change (a rating with a plus or minus specification) and their level of irresponsible corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. Using a 24-year panel sample with 1182 U.S. firms and 11,335 firm-year observations, we find that firms near a broad bond rating change tend to reduce their irresponsible CSR activities more than firms that are not near a broad bond rating change. The results persist through a battery of robustness checks. Furthermore, we find that our results are stronger for high growth firms.