本文檢驗2005~2011年臺灣上市公司社會責任(Corporate Social Responsibility)與公司權益資金成本(Cost of Equity)的關聯性。近年來企業社會責任已經成為世界各國財金專家學者所關注的熱門議題，但大多數既有實證研究皆在檢驗社會責任對公司績效影響，較少探討社會責任如何影響公司資金成本。El Ghoul et al. (2011)指出一家執行企業社會責任的公司由於較沒有資訊不對稱的問題，所以能吸引較多的投資人去進行投資，故每位投資人分散風險的機會較多，因而會要求較低的必要報酬率。此外，具社會責任的公司其期望收益的不確定性亦會相對較低，也會有較少的訴訟風險及衍生出的財務風險。因此，具有社會責任的公司應該會對應著較低的風險貼水及資金成本。我們利用遠見雜誌與天下雜誌所進行的社會責任評比來衡量社會責任變數，以檢驗企業社會責任與公司資金成本的關聯性，實證結果顯示，企業社會責任與權益資金成本呈現負向的關係，社會責任執行程度較佳的公司，在籌措資金時所需付出的權益成本將會愈低。這表示一家公司是否有執行企業社會責任這項行為，將會成為影響此公司籌措權益資金時能否享有較低成本之重要因素。最後，經由兩階段估計以矯正樣本選擇偏誤(Selection Bias)下的實證結果並未有明顯的改變。 The relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and firm’s financial performance is well-documented in prior studies, but the impact of CSR on cost of equity is relative rare. Theoretically, firm with CSR tends to have larger investor base and lower perceived risks. The characteristics of less-risky provide firms with an advantageous position of financing, namely, enjoying a lowered risk premium and thus cost of equity. Using industrial companies listed on Taiwan Stock Exchange from 2005 to 2011, we examine whether a firm with CSR tends to have lower cost of equity. Our results show that CSR-firm tends to have lower cost of equity. The evidence supports the positive linkage between CSR and the ease of equity financing, and establish the linkage that a favorable cost of equity is a channel through which financial markets encourage firms to be more socially responsible. The main result does not change among various specification of regression estimation, employing two-stage estimation and separation of full samples into high-tech companies versus non-high-tech ones.
