IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecmode/v121y2023ics0264999323000093.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Stock market reactions to corporate misconduct: The moderating role of legal origin

Author

Listed:
  • Erragragui, Elias
  • Peillex, Jonathan
  • Benlemlih, Mohammed
  • Bitar, Mohammad

Abstract

Does a country's legal regime shape stock market reactions to corporate misconduct? In the presence of conflicting legal views, efficient regulation through sanctions and deterrence is difficult to establish. Using data from 2164 environmental, social, and governance controversies over the 2010–2015 period, we examine whether the legal regime in which firms operate shapes stock markets reactions to announcement of corporate controversies. We find a larger and consistent stock market correction following corporate misconduct announcements among firms headquartered in civil law countries. As such, we report a greater correction under Scandinavian legal regime that is robust when controlling for endogeneity, self-selection, and country- and firm-level controls. Presence of litigation eliminates the incremental penalty of the civil law while higher internal and external monitoring exacerbates it. Our findings support the optimal penalty theory, in which stock market sanctions are viewed as complementary reputational penalties that balance the limits of legal enforcement mechanisms.

Suggested Citation

  • Erragragui, Elias & Peillex, Jonathan & Benlemlih, Mohammed & Bitar, Mohammad, 2023. "Stock market reactions to corporate misconduct: The moderating role of legal origin," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecmode:v:121:y:2023:i:c:s0264999323000093
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econmod.2023.106197
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264999323000093
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econmod.2023.106197?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. Andrei Shleifer & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Rafael La Porta, 2008. "The Economic Consequences of Legal Origins," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 46(2), pages 285-332, June.
    2. Pham, Thi Hong Hanh, 2015. "Energy management systems and market value: Is there a link?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 70-78.
    3. Jiraporn, Pornsit & Miller, Gary A. & Yoon, Soon Suk & Kim, Young S., 2008. "Is earnings management opportunistic or beneficial? An agency theory perspective," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 622-634, June.
    4. Henk Berkman & Michael D. McKenzie, 2012. "Earnings Announcements: Good News for Institutional Investors and Short Sellers," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 47(1), pages 91-113, February.
    5. Mohammad Bitar & Mohammed Benlemlih & Elias Erragragui & Jonathan Peillex, 2021. "Legal rules, information transparency and Islamic bank capital decisions," Post-Print hal-03680599, HAL.
    6. Baker, H. Kent & Nofsinger, John R. & Weaver, Daniel G., 2002. "International Cross-Listing and Visibility," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 37(3), pages 495-521, September.
    7. Dunbar, Craig & Li, Zhichuan (Frank) & Shi, Yaqi, 2020. "CEO risk-taking incentives and corporate social responsibility," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    8. Charl de Villiers & Ana Marques, 2016. "Corporate social responsibility, country-level predispositions, and the consequences of choosing a level of disclosure," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(2), pages 167-195, February.
    9. Mohammed Benlemlih & Mohammad Bitar & Elias Erragragui & Jonathan Peillex, 2021. "New Evidence on the Relationship Between Corporate Social Responsibility and the Use of Equity Capital," Post-Print hal-03821683, HAL.
    10. Andreas G. F. Hoepner & Lisa Schopohl, 2018. "On the Price of Morals in Markets: An Empirical Study of the Swedish AP-Funds and the Norwegian Government Pension Fund," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 151(3), pages 665-692, September.
    11. Jaballah, Jamil & Peillex, Jonathan & Weill, Laurent, 2018. "Is Being Sharia compliant worth it?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 353-362.
    12. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    13. Karpoff, Jonathan M. & Lee, D. Scott & Martin, Gerald S., 2008. "The Cost to Firms of Cooking the Books," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 43(3), pages 581-611, September.
    14. Krüger, Philipp, 2015. "Corporate goodness and shareholder wealth," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(2), pages 304-329.
    15. Mohammed Benlemlih & Mohammad Bitar, 2018. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Investment Efficiency," Post-Print halshs-01321227, HAL.
    16. Amal Aouadi & Sylvain Marsat, 2018. "Do ESG Controversies Matter for Firm Value? Evidence from International Data," Post-Print halshs-02007374, HAL.
    17. Lei Chen, 2016. "Local Institutions, Audit Quality, and Corporate Scandals of US-Listed Foreign Firms," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 133(2), pages 351-373, January.
    18. Leong, Chee Kian & Yang, Yung Chiang, 2020. "Market competition and firms' social performance," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 601-612.
    19. Lanoie, Paul & Laplante, Benoit & Roy, Maite, 1998. "Can capital markets create incentives for pollution control?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 31-41, July.
    20. Dasgupta, Susmita & Laplante, Benoit & Mamingi, Nlandu, 2001. "Pollution and Capital Markets in Developing Countries," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 310-335, November.
    21. Karpoff, Jonathan M & Lott, John R, Jr & Wehrly, Eric W, 2005. "The Reputational Penalties for Environmental Violations: Empirical Evidence," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 48(2), pages 653-675, October.
    22. Yu, Wei & Zheng, Ying, 2020. "Does CSR reporting matter to foreign institutional investors in China?," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 40(C).
    23. Le Gallo, Julie & Ndiaye, Youba, 2021. "Environmental expenditure interactions among OECD countries, 1995–2017," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 244-255.
    24. Amal Aouadi & Sylvain Marsat, 2018. "Do ESG Controversies Matter for Firm Value? Evidence from International Data," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 151(4), pages 1027-1047, September.
    25. Franklin Allen & Elena Carletti & Robert Marquez, 2015. "Stakeholder Governance, Competition, and Firm Value," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 19(3), pages 1315-1346.
    26. Ho, Shirley J. & Mallick, Sushanta K., 2015. "A Copayment Auditing Scheme for Financial Misreporting," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 53-74.
    27. Boehmer, Ekkehart & Masumeci, Jim & Poulsen, Annette B., 1991. "Event-study methodology under conditions of event-induced variance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 253-272, December.
    28. Gregor Dorfleitner & Christian Kreuzer & Christian Sparrer, 2020. "ESG controversies and controversial ESG: about silent saints and small sinners," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 21(5), pages 393-412, September.
    29. Mohammed Benlemlih & Isabelle Girerd-Potin, 2017. "Corporate social responsibility and firm financial risk reduction: On the moderating role of the legal environment," Post-Print hal-01977064, HAL.
    30. Xiong, Lingyun & Deng, Hui & Xiao, Lijuan, 2021. "Does stock market liberalization mitigate litigation risk? Evidence from Stock Connect in China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    31. Adams, Renée B. & Ferreira, Daniel, 2009. "Women in the boardroom and their impact on governance and performance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(2), pages 291-309, November.
    32. Mohammed Benlemlih & Isabelle Girerd-Potin, 2017. "Corporate social responsibility and firm financial risk reduction: On the moderating role of the legal environment," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(7-8), pages 1137-1166, July.
    33. Guo, Mengmeng & Kuai, Yicheng & Liu, Xiaoyan, 2020. "Stock market response to environmental policies: Evidence from heavily polluting firms in China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 306-316.
    34. Guangming Gong & Xin Huang & Sirui Wu & Haowen Tian & Wanjin Li, 2021. "Punishment by Securities Regulators, Corporate Social Responsibility and the Cost of Debt," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 171(2), pages 337-356, June.
    35. Kiyoung Chang & Incheol Kim & Ying Li, 2014. "The Heterogeneous Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility Activities That Target Different Stakeholders," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 125(2), pages 211-234, December.
    36. Dyck, Alexander & Lins, Karl V. & Roth, Lukas & Wagner, Hannes F., 2019. "Do institutional investors drive corporate social responsibility? International evidence," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(3), pages 693-714.
    37. Jan Endrikat, 2016. "Market Reactions to Corporate Environmental Performance Related Events: A Meta-analytic Consolidation of the Empirical Evidence," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 138(3), pages 535-548, October.
    38. Byun, Seong K. & Oh, Jong-Min, 2018. "Local corporate social responsibility, media coverage, and shareholder value," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 68-86.
    39. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 1993. "Common risk factors in the returns on stocks and bonds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 3-56, February.
    40. Murphy, Deborah L. & Shrieves, Ronald E. & Tibbs, Samuel L., 2009. "Understanding the Penalties Associated with Corporate Misconduct: An Empirical Examination of Earnings and Risk," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 44(1), pages 55-83, February.
    41. Ghadhab, Imen, 2019. "Does cross-listing in the US mitigate stock crash risk? International evidence," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 186-197.
    42. Corrado, Charles J. & Zivney, Terry L., 1992. "The Specification and Power of the Sign Test in Event Study Hypothesis Tests Using Daily Stock Returns," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 27(3), pages 465-478, September.
    43. Hakkon Kim & Kwangwoo Park & Doojin Ryu, 2017. "Corporate Environmental Responsibility: A Legal Origins Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 140(3), pages 381-402, February.
    44. Florian Berg & Julian F Kölbel & Roberto Rigobon, 2022. "Aggregate Confusion: The Divergence of ESG Ratings [Corporate social responsibility and firm risk: theory and empirical evidence]," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 26(6), pages 1315-1344.
    45. Hao Liang & Luc Renneboog, 2017. "On the Foundations of Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(2), pages 853-910, April.
    46. Arena, Matteo P. & Ferris, Stephen P., 2018. "A global analysis of corporate litigation risk and costs," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 28-41.
    47. Emilios Galariotis & Konstantinos Karagiannis, 2021. "Cultural dimensions, economic policy uncertainty, and momentum investing: international evidence," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(10), pages 976-993, July.
    48. Attig, Najah & Cleary, Sean & El Ghoul, Sadok & Guedhami, Omrane, 2012. "Institutional investment horizon and investment–cash flow sensitivity," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 1164-1180.
    49. Nirino, Niccolò & Santoro, Gabriele & Miglietta, Nicola & Quaglia, Roberto, 2021. "Corporate controversies and company's financial performance: Exploring the moderating role of ESG practices," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    50. Céline Gainet, 2010. "Exploring the Impact of Legal Systems and Financial Structure on Corporate Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 95(2), pages 195-222, September.
    51. Marina Dabic & Ana Colovic & Olivier Lamotte & Mollie Painter-Morland & Silvana Brozovic, 2016. "Industry-specific CSR: analysis of 20 years of research," Post-Print hal-02907079, HAL.
    52. Mohammad Bitar & Mohammed Benlemlih & Elias Erragragui & Jonathan Peillex, 2021. "Legal rules, information transparency and Islamic bank capital decisions," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(53), pages 6184-6203, November.
    53. Mohammed Benlemlih & Mohammad Bitar, 2018. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Investment Efficiency," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 148(3), pages 647-671, March.
    54. Carl J. Kock & Byung S. Min, 2016. "Legal Origins, Corporate Governance, and Environmental Outcomes," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 138(3), pages 507-524, October.
    55. Ping Wei & Xiaodan Mao & Xiaohong Chen, 2020. "Institutional investors' attention to environmental information, trading strategies, and market impacts: Evidence from China," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 566-591, February.
    56. Tsai, Yu-Cheng & Huang, Hua-Wei, 2021. "Internal control material weakness opinions and the market's reaction to securities fraud litigation announcements," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    57. Günster, Andrea & van Dijk, Mathijs, 2016. "The impact of European antitrust policy: Evidence from the stock market," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 20-33.
    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. Peillex, Jonathan, 2023. "Réaction des investisseurs à la création de fonds éthiques [Investor reaction to the creation of ethical funds]," MPRA Paper 118930, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Isogai, Shigeki & Shen, Chaohai, 2023. "Multiproduct firm’s reputation and leniency program in multimarket collusion," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 125(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. Zhe Li & Ping Wang & Tianlong Wu, 2021. "Do foreign institutional investors drive corporate social responsibility? Evidence from listed firms in China," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1-2), pages 338-373, January.
    2. Liu, Xianda & Hou, Wenxuan & Main, Brian G.M., 2022. "Anti-market sentiment and corporate social responsibility: Evidence from anti-Jewish pogroms," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    3. Flore, Christian & Kolaric, Sascha & Schiereck, Dirk, 2017. "Settlement agreement types of federal corporate prosecution in the U.S. and their impact on shareholder wealth," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 145-158.
    4. Ramírez-Orellana, Alicia & Martínez-Victoria, MCarmen & García-Amate, Antonio & Rojo-Ramírez, Alfonso A., 2023. "Is the corporate financial strategy in the oil and gas sector affected by ESG dimensions?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    5. Mohammed Benlemlih & Jamil Jaballah & Sholom Schochet & Jonathan Peillex, 2023. "Corporate social responsibility and corporate tax avoidance: The channel effect of consumer awareness," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1-2), pages 31-60, January.
    6. Malik, Ihtisham A. & Chowdhury, Hasibul & Alam, Md Samsul, 2023. "Equity market response to natural disasters: Does firm's corporate social responsibility make difference?," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    7. Azmi, Wajahat & Hassan, M. Kabir & Houston, Reza & Karim, Mohammad Sydul, 2021. "ESG activities and banking performance: International evidence from emerging economies," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    8. Ormazabal, Gaizka, 2018. "The Role of Stakeholders in Corporate Governance: A View from Accounting Research," CEPR Discussion Papers 12775, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    9. Florian Habermann & Felix Bernhard Fischer, 2023. "Corporate Social Performance and the Likelihood of Bankruptcy: Evidence from a Period of Economic Upswing," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 182(1), pages 243-259, January.
    10. Zhe Li & Ping Wang, 2023. "Cross‐border mergers and acquisitions and corporate social responsibility: Evidence from Chinese listed firms," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1-2), pages 335-376, January.
    11. Siew Peng Lee, 2023. "Board monitoring effectiveness and corporate sustainability performance: do legal system and CEO non-duality matter?," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 1243-1267, May.
    12. Paola Brighi & Antonio Carlo Francesco Della Bina & Valeria Venturelli, 2022. "Do ESG Investments Mitigate ESG Controversies? Evidence From International Data," Centro Studi di Banca e Finanza (CEFIN) (Center for Studies in Banking and Finance) 0084, Universita di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Dipartimento di Economia "Marco Biagi".
    13. Ehsan Poursoleyman & Gholamreza Mansourfar & Mohammad Kabir Hassan & Saeid Homayoun, 2024. "Did Corporate Social Responsibility Vaccinate Corporations Against COVID-19?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 189(3), pages 525-551, January.
    14. Marshall, Andrew & Rao, Sandeep & Roy, Partha P. & Thapa, Chandra, 2022. "Mandatory corporate social responsibility and foreign institutional investor preferences," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    15. Costanza Consolandi & Giovanni Ferri & Andrea Roncella, 2022. "All you need is G(overnance): Sustainable Finance Following Ambrogio Lorenzetti's Frescoes," SERIES 01-2022, Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza - Università degli Studi di Bari "Aldo Moro", revised Jul 2022.
    16. Farah, Tazrina & Li, Jialong & Li, Zhicheng & Shamsuddin, Abul, 2021. "The non-linear effect of CSR on firms’ systematic risk: International evidence," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    17. Tommy Lundgren & Rickard Olsson, 2010. "Environmental incidents and firm value-international evidence using a multi-factor event study framework," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(16), pages 1293-1307.
    18. Chen, Zhongfei & Xie, Guanxia, 2022. "ESG disclosure and financial performance: Moderating role of ESG investors," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    19. Kabir, Rezaul & Thai, Hanh Minh, 2021. "Key factors determining corporate social responsibility practices of Vietnamese firms and the joint effects of foreign ownership," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    20. Harjoto, Maretno A. & Hoepner, Andreas G.F. & Li, Qian, 2021. "Corporate social irresponsibility and portfolio performance: A cross-national study," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Event study; environmental; social; and governance controversies; Stock prices; Legal origin; Reputational penalty;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • K22 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - Business and Securities Law
    • L51 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Economics of Regulation
    • M14 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Corporate Culture; Diversity; Social Responsibility
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O57 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Comparative Studies of Countries

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:eee:ecmode:v:121:y:2023:i:c:s0264999323000093. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/30411 .

    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.