The Legal Origins of Corporate Social Responsibility

34 Pages Posted: 9 Oct 2013 Last revised: 3 Mar 2014

See all articles by Leonardo Becchetti

Leonardo Becchetti

University of Rome Tor Vergata - Faculty of Economics

Rocco Ciciretti

Tor Vergata University of Rome - Department of Economics and Finance

Pierluigi Conzo

University of Turin - Department of Economics and Statistics; Collegio Carlo Alberto; CSEF - University of Naples Federico II - Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF)

Date Written: October 4, 2013

Abstract

The legal origin literature documents that civil and common law traditions have different impact on rules and economic outcomes. We contribute to this literature by investigating the relationship between corporate social responsibility and legal origins. Consistently with the main differences in historical and legal backgrounds and net of industry specific effects, the common law origin has a significant and positive impact on the Corporate Governance and Community Involvement domains, while the French legal tradition of civil law on the Human Resources domain. We also document that the lack of observable differences in the environmental domain can be explained by firms' progressive convergence to industry sustainability standards.

Keywords: legal origins, corporate social responsibility, environmental standards, corporate governance, civil law, common law

JEL Classification: K10; K20; K31; K32; D60

Suggested Citation

Becchetti, Leonardo and Ciciretti, Rocco and Conzo, Pierluigi, The Legal Origins of Corporate Social Responsibility (October 4, 2013). CEIS Working Paper No. 291, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2336179 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2336179

Leonardo Becchetti (Contact Author)

University of Rome Tor Vergata - Faculty of Economics ( email )

Via Columbia, 2
I-00133 Rome
Italy

Rocco Ciciretti

Tor Vergata University of Rome - Department of Economics and Finance ( email )

Via Columbia, 2
Roma, 00133
Italy
+39 06 72595925 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.roccociciretti.com/

Pierluigi Conzo

University of Turin - Department of Economics and Statistics ( email )

Campus Luigi Einaudi
Lungo Dora Siena 100 A
Torino, Torino 10153
Italy
011/6703892 (Phone)
011/6703895 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.pieroconzo.altervista.org/wordpress/

Collegio Carlo Alberto ( email )

Piazza Arbarello, 8
Torino, 10122
Italy

HOME PAGE: http://www.carloalberto.org/people/faculty/affiliates/pierluigi-conzo/

CSEF - University of Naples Federico II - Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF) ( email )

Via Cintia
Complesso Monte S. Angelo
Naples, Naples 80126
Italy

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