Finance Research Seminar – Ya Gao

Title: Political Control and Socially Responsible Practices

Date: 12 March 2025

Time: 13:00 – 14:00

Venue: NUBS.2.03

If you would like to attend, please register using the following link:

Political Control and Socially Responsible Practices

Speaker:  Ya Gao (PhD Student, Newcastle University)

Ya Gao is a PhD student under the supervisions of Dr Trinh Vu and Professor Bartosz Gebka. The student wish to gather comments and practice ahead of their conference presentation.

Abstract:

This study investigates the potential impact of political control on corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance in China. Utilising a hand-collected dataset on the political control of 941 Chinese listed firms from 2010 to 2019, the findings reveal a significant positive relationship between political control and CSR performance. Additionally, firms implementing party-building reforms demonstrate superior CSR performance when operating in less monopolised markets. These results remain robust across various methodologies, including Differences-in-Differences (DID), Heckman two-stage, and Instrumental Variable (IV) estimation. This study contributes to the empirical understanding of how direct political connections influence CSR performance and enriches the literature on politically motivated CSR strategies.