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Does Money Talk? Market Discipline through Selloffs and Boycotts

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  • Giannetti, Mariassunta
  • ,
  • Gantchev, Nickolay

Abstract

Using a novel dataset of negative news coverage of the environmental and social (E&S) practices of firms around the world, we show that customers and investors can provide market discipline and impose their ethical standards on firm policies. Investors sell firms with heightened E&S risk, especially if they are from E&S conscious countries or hold portfolios with high sustainability ratings. Similarly, heightened E&S risk is associated with a drop in firms’ sales in E&S conscious countries. This behavior of E&S conscious investors and customers leads to declines in stock prices, which push firms to improve their E&S policies in the years following negative realizations of E&S risk. Overall, our results indicate that customers and shareholders are able to impose their social preferences on firms, suggesting that market discipline works.

Suggested Citation

  • Giannetti, Mariassunta & , & Gantchev, Nickolay, 2019. "Does Money Talk? Market Discipline through Selloffs and Boycotts," CEPR Discussion Papers 14098, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:14098
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Kovács, Olivér, 2020. "Gazellák az iparpolitika tükrében, II [Gazelles and industrial policy, Part II]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(2), pages 181-205.
    2. Becchetti, Leonardo & Cucinelli, Doriana & Ielasi, Federica & Rossolini, Monica, 2023. "Corporate social irresponsibility: The relationship between ESG misconduct and the cost of equity," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    3. Becchetti, Leonardo & Manfredonia, Stefano, 2022. "Media, reputational risk, and bank loan contracting," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Corporate social responsibility; Institutional investors; Culture; Environment; Corporate governance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G15 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - International Financial Markets
    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors
    • G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General
    • M14 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Corporate Culture; Diversity; Social Responsibility

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