Impact of Non-financial Disclosure Scores on the Cost of Equity Capital: Evidence from European Data in the Light of the Subprime Crisis

Jocelyn Husser (1) , Elisabeth Paulet (2, 3)

1 AMU IAE - Institut d'Administration des Entreprises (IAE) - Aix-en-Provence
2 ICN Business School
3 CEREFIGE - Centre Européen de Recherche en Economie Financière et Gestion des Entreprises

This chapter explores the relationship between social, governance and environmental disclosure scores, on one hand, and the cost of capital, on the other. Its originality is the focus on the quality of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure by studying global CSR at the same time as its three constituent dimensions. The empirical data it uses comes from Euronext SBF 120 companies over the period 2006 through 2011. The longitudinal study covers two separate periods (2006–2008 and 2009–2011). The corporate social responsibility disclosure scores (global, environment, social or governance) have an influence on the cost of capital. Moreover, financial analyst recommendations did, on the other hand, help lower the cost of capital. Lastly, the study shows that since 2009, financial analysts have increasingly taken the quality of CSR information disclosure into account in their Euronext SBF 120 stock recommendations.

Mots clés: Corporate social responsibility; Cost of capital; Social disclosure; Financial analysts; Subprime crisis

Domaines: Sciences de l'Homme et Société

Jocelyn Husser, Elisabeth Paulet. Impact of Non-financial Disclosure Scores on the Cost of Equity Capital: Evidence from European Data in the Light of the Subprime Crisis. Kleemet Tunca Cakiyurt. Ethics ans sustainability in Accounting and Finance, 2, pp.63-84, 2021, 978-981-15-1927-7. ⟨10.1007/978-981-15-1928-4_4⟩. ⟨hal-03109626⟩