Analyst coverage and corporate social performance: Evidence from China

•Our study shows that companies in China followed by more analysts engage in more philanthropy.•The effect of analyst coverage on philanthropy is more pronounced for non-state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs).•Our research enriches the literature on corporate social responsibility and analyst coverage.

This paper uses a set of unique data from Chinese listed companies to examine the influence of analyst coverage on corporate philanthropy. Results show that companies followed by more analysts engage in more philanthropy, which provides support for the reputational capital view of corporate philanthropy. The effect of analyst coverage on philanthropy is more pronounced for nonstate-owned enterprises (non-SOEs) than for state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Using the number of analysts following the firm and media coverage as alternative measures, distinguishing star analysts and ordinary analysts and applying the change model and 2SLS model with merge of brokerage houses as the instrumental variable, we confirm the robustness of the conclusions. Our research enriches the literature on corporate social responsibility and analyst coverage.