Economic Perspectives on Corporate Social Responsibility

This paper synthesizes the expanding corporate social responsibility (CSR) literature. We define CSR from an economic perspective and develop a CSR taxonomy that connects disparate approaches to the subject. We explore whether CSR should exist and investigate conditions when CSR may produce higher w...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of economic literature Vol. 50; no. 1; pp. 51 - 84
Main Authors Kitzmueller, Markus, Shimshack, Jay
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Nashville American Economic Association 01.03.2012
Assoc
Subjects
Arbeitsbedingungen
Business structures
Consumers
Corporate responsibility
Corporate Social Responsibility
Economic regulation
Economic theory
Economics
Empirical evidence
Empirical research
Environmental regulation
Externality
Game theory
Gewinn
Green economics
Industrial regulation
Innovation
Labour market
Marketing
Moral Hazard
Nichtregierungsorganisation
Politics
Public goods
Social responsibility
Society
Stakeholder
Stockholders
Taxonomy
Theorie
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Summary:This paper synthesizes the expanding corporate social responsibility (CSR) literature. We define CSR from an economic perspective and develop a CSR taxonomy that connects disparate approaches to the subject. We explore whether CSR should exist and investigate conditions when CSR may produce higher welfare than other public good provision channels. We also explore why CSR does exist. Here, we integrate theoretical predictions with empirical findings from economic and noneconomic sources. We find limited systematic empirical evidence in favor of CSR mechanisms related to induced innovation, moral hazard, shareholder preferences, or labor markets. In contrast, we uncover consistent empirical evidence in favor of CSR mechanisms related to consumer markets, private politics, and public politics.
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ISSN:0022-0515
2328-8175
DOI:10.1257/jel.50.1.51