The impact of climate policy uncertainty on firm value: Does corporate social responsibility engagement matter?

This paper examines if corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement can mitigate the negative impact of climate policy uncertainty (CPU) on firm valuation. Using a sample of firms in the Standards & Poor 1500 index over 2002-2021 we show that a higher-CSR-engagement offsets the negative impact of CPU on firms' valuation. Further analyses imply that this insurance-like effect holds among the highest-CSR firms and stronger during the crisis period. Finally, high-CSR firms realize higher growth in operating profitability (OP), which offers a possible source for documented insurance-effect.