The Effect of Nadeshiko Brands on Short-run Stock Returns (Japanese)

For the purpose of EBPM (Evidence-Based Policy Making), this paper empirically evaluates the effect of the Nadeshiko Brand certification by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). Every year, METI selects as "Nadeshiko Brands" around 45 publicly traded companies where female employees play important roles in the business. The companies are promoted to investors. I compare a recipient company of the Nadeshiko Brand certification with similar non-recipients and study daily stock returns around the announcement day by using the synthetic control method. My findings are as follows. When Omron received the Nadeshiko Brand certification for the first time, Omron got an especially large amount of attention from investors and had a higher stock return by five percentage points on the announcement day than the counterfactual in which Omron had not received the certification. However, I find no effects of the Nadeshiko Brand certification when (i) Omron received it for the second time, (ii) KI-Star Real Estate received it for the first time, and (iii) Chiba Bank received it for the first time and second time.