Real Effects of a Widespread CSR Reporting Mandate - Publication at the Chair of Accounting and Auditing


The paper „Real effects of a widespread CSR reporting mandate: Evidence from the European Union’s CSR Directive“, authored by Markus Hitz (Göttingen University), Peter Fiechter (University of Neuchâtel) and Nico Lehmann (Erasmus University Rotterdam), has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Accounting Research. The Journal of Accounting Research is listed in the Financial Times 50 list and (together with the Journal of Accounting and Economics) represents one of the two leading (A+) research journals in the field of Accounting. Markus Hitz heads the Chair of Accounting and Auditing at the Faculty of Business and Economics.

In the paper, the authors investigate effects of the "EU CSR Directive", an EU-wide regulation mandating large firms to prepare non-financial reports. These reports must include comprehensive information on policies, main risks, and outcomes related to, e.g., environmental matters, social and employee factors. The empirical findings from the study show that affected firms significantly increase their CSR activities in response to the disclosure mandate. Ensuing analyses demonstrate that these effects reflect meaningful increases in CSR beyond firms’ potential attempts to "greenwash" CSR performance. The findings from this study shed light on a potential role of transparency mandates for implementing public policy objectives.

More information: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3725603