기업의 사회적 책임 활동이 자본비용에 미치는 영향

This paper empirically investigates whether the corporate social responsibility activity decreases the cost of capital by mitigating information asymmetry in the capital market. In order to examine the effects, we utilize a multivariate regression analysis using the KEJI index of corporate social responsibility and cost of capital in the stock and debt market. This paper considers costs of equity and debt in separate markets. The cost of equity is measured by the implied cost of equity capital from an extension of the residual income valuation model (Ohlson, 1995) and the cost of debt is measured by interest costs computed from the financial statement. The empirical results are as follows. First, the results of univariate analysis show that the costs of equity and debt capital of the KEJI index included firms are substantially smaller than other firms that are not included in the index. Second, the results of multivariate regression analysis show that there is a negative relationship between the CSR activity and costs of equity and debt capital at a statically significant level. This result indicates that firms with strong social responsibility have a lower cost of capital in the market and the information on CSR assessment conveys a meaningful signal to the market. In addition, the effect of KEJI index variable is much bigger than other firm characteristics. This result implies that the level of CSR activity is a much better measurement on firms’ information than any other firm factor in the Korea capital market. Finally, the results of robust tests using the KEJI score as a proxy for the CSR activity show also a negative relationship between the CSR and cost of capitals. In conclusion, the CSR activity of firms is an effect way of reducing the cost of capital in equity and debt market by relieving information asymmetry between insiders and outside investors.