Cross-listing and CSR performance: evidence from AH shares

This study investigates the association between corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance and cross-listing. In a clean setting where a change in CSR performance can be attributed to the cross-listing, we find a statistically significant and economically meaningful increase in CSR performance for the cross-listed firms. Moreover, such an increase comes mostly in technical CSR, which targets the firms’ primary stakeholders. We also find that the positive association between cross-listing and CSR improvements is more pronounced for firms with weak corporate governance. The results hold under a variety of different robustness checks.