The Impact of Mandated Corporate Social Responsibility: Evidence from India's Companies Act of 2013

36 Pages Posted: 15 Jul 2016 Last revised: 24 Sep 2018

See all articles by Vikramaditya S. Khanna

Vikramaditya S. Khanna

University of Michigan Law School; European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI)

Dhammika Dharmapala

UC Berkeley School of Law; CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute); European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI)

Multiple version iconThere are 3 versions of this paper

Date Written: September 2018

Abstract

Firms’ Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activity has become the subject of a large literature in recent years. This paper analyzes CSR activity using quasi-experimental variation created by Section 135 of India’s Companies Act of 2013, which requires (on a “comply-or-explain” basis) that firms satisfying specific size or profit thresholds spend a minimum of 2% of their net profit on CSR. We examine effects on CSR spending and related outcomes, as well as exploring broader theoretical implications. Our analysis uses financial statement data on Indian firms from the Prowess database, along with hand-collected data from firms’ disclosures of CSR activity. Using a difference-in-difference approach, we find significant increases in CSR activity among firms affected by Section 135, especially along the extensive margin (i.e. in the fraction of firms engaging in CSR spending). The fraction of firms subject to Section 135 that engage in advertising expenditures declines, consistent with substitution between advertising and CSR. For a subset of large firms, we hand-collect comprehensive CSR data and find that while firms initially spending less than 2% increased their CSR activity, large firms initially spending more than 2% reduced their CSR expenditures after Section 135 came into effect. We explore various explanations for this presumably unintended consequence of Section 135, and also seek to derive some wider implications of this analysis for understanding the role of CSR.

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility, Firm Value, India

JEL Classification: K2, M2

Suggested Citation

Khanna, Vikramaditya S. and Dharmapala, Dhammika, The Impact of Mandated Corporate Social Responsibility: Evidence from India's Companies Act of 2013 (September 2018). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2808366 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2808366

Vikramaditya S. Khanna (Contact Author)

University of Michigan Law School ( email )

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Dhammika Dharmapala

UC Berkeley School of Law ( email )

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CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute) ( email )

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European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) ( email )

c/o the Royal Academies of Belgium
Rue Ducale 1 Hertogsstraat
1000 Brussels
Belgium

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