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The Voice: The Shareholders' Motives Behind Corporate Donations during COVID-19 (former title: Selfish Shareholders: Corporate Donations during COVID-19)

Author

Listed:
  • Michele Fioretti

    (ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Victor Saint-Jean

    (ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Simon C Smith

    (Federal Reserve Board)

Abstract

What motivates shareholders to become prosocial activists? We exploit the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic as a natural experiment to study activism at S&P500 corporations. Prominent individual and family shareholders supported covid-related corporate donations to bolster their reputations as, for the public, they are synonymous with the donating firms. Image gains, instead, do not pass through to institutional shareholders; also, due to the sinking stock market, these shareholders preferred to donate themselves rather than support donations at the firms in their portfolios. Our results point to media attention as a critical channel to incentivize institutional shareholders to support prosocial decisions.

Suggested Citation

  • Michele Fioretti & Victor Saint-Jean & Simon C Smith, 2022. "The Voice: The Shareholders' Motives Behind Corporate Donations during COVID-19 (former title: Selfish Shareholders: Corporate Donations during COVID-19)," Working Papers hal-03386585, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-03386585
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://sciencespo.hal.science/hal-03386585v2
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