We create textual information indices using corporate social responsibility (CSR) information extracted from IPO prospectuses in China. We use the indices to measure the issuers' corporate social performance (CSP) and corporate environmental performance (CEP) and assess how the stock market reacts. We find that CSP disclosure is significantly related to the post-market performance of the firm. Specifically, better CSP disclosure is correlated with higher post-IPO listing holding period returns among firms that do not disclose donations or environmental expenditures, although the association does not hold for firms that make donations and environmental expenditures. In addition, institutional investors seem to care more about the CEP information for a firm than the CSP information.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure has gained more attention from both practitioners and scholars. Company executives are starting to seek competitive differentiation from their sustainability strategies (McKinsey & Company, 2020). This study explores the link between CSR disclosure and investment efficiency using a sample of Chinese-listed firms from 2010 to 2019. The findings suggest that CSR disclosure improves investment efficiency through reducing information asymmetry and agency cost. Also, mandatory CSR disclosure has a more significant effect on investment efficiency than voluntary CSR disclosure. In addition, this study finds that the nature of ownership (state-owned vs. non-state-owned), CSR performance, institutional ownership, and the level of industry competition all affect this relationship. The study provides meaningful implications for future CSR disclosure policy development.

We examine whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) plays a role in moderating trading silence prior to bad news earnings announcements. Unusually low trading volume before the public release of negative earnings information constrains price discovery. We find that unusually low trading volume prior to earnings announcements is less pronounced for firms with a high level of CSR activities. We also find that this effect is stronger before bad news earnings announcements than good news earnings announcements. These findings are robust to various alternative research design choices and to the endogeneity concern between CSR and trading activity. Taken together, our study demonstrates that CSR plays a moderating role in trading silence by improving firms' pre-disclosure business and information environments.

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