Does CSR Policy Influence Dividends?

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a new trend all over the world. It is manifested in the fact that reporting rates have risen more than twice since millennium, as CSR seems to be an impressive marketing strategy that assists in obtaining competitive advantage among competitors. Moreover, several studies report a positive impact of CSR activities on the firm’s financial performance, its credibility in the debt market and some other factors. Still little is known about its impact on another important aspect of a financial policy - a dividend policy. That is why we use the sample comprising the data of Fortune Global 500 companies from 2008 up to 2018 to understand this relation. We construct 58 models to test our main hypotheses that CSR policy and CSR disclosure positively affect the size of dividends. Then we check the robustness of the model in order to ensure that the conclusions made are valid. This study will have implications for any interested party, including investors, shareholders and chief executives.