Study On The Effect Of Corporate Social Responsibility On Total Factor Productivity Of Chinese Manufacturing Listed Companies

China's economic development has entered a new era,that is,from a highspeed growth stage to a high-quality development stage.Therefore,the traditional growth pattern that relies on demographic dividends and rapid capitalization are no longer sustainable.The “Report on the Work of the Government 2015” first proposes to increase research and development spending and raise total factor productivity(TFP),as well as to accelerate the implement of the strategy of pursuing innovationdriven development and to achieve a better-quality,more efficient,and upgraded economy.This proposal has been mentioned multiple times in subsequent government meetings or government reports.It can be seen that China's economic growth must be shifted to the path of improving TFP in order to achieve China's high-quality development in the future.Manufacturing is the mainstay of our national economy,and it is imperative to improve manufacturing enterprise TFP and thus realizing the transforming and upgrading of manufacturing.Meanwhile,the historical juncture and development tasks of the new era have endowed manufacturing enterprises new requirements to fulfill corporate social responsibility(CSR).In a word,manufacturing enterprises should take CSR for sustainable development of society,and finally realize a harmonious situation in which enterprises develops together with all stakeholders.However,the truth is that the overall CSR level of manufacturing enterprises in China is low.The above background brings us to think: considering the fact that manufacturing enterprises are faced with the dual tasks of improving enterprise TFP and CSR,is there a relationship between them? Does CSR affect manufacturing enterprise TFP? For a long time,scholars and practitioners have paid great attention to the impacts of CSR on enterprise performance and most researches support the view that CSR generates positive effects on enterprise performance,though the conclusions are not consistent.However,distinctly less emphasis has been placed on the effects of CSR on enterprise TFP.Maintaining high TFP level is the core driving force for the long-run development of manufacturing enterprises,and is also the key to manufacturing enterprises' transforming and upgrading under the new era.The answers to these questions that whether and how does CSR influence enterprise TFP can not only help manufacturing enterprises to further promote CSR,but also provide a new pathway to improve enterprise TFP.Therefore,the main purpose of this dissertation is to explore the relationship between CSR and enterprise TFP as well as the potential mechanisms behind them.This dissertation tries to get the causal effects of CSR on enterprise TFP by using the data of the manufacturing listed companies of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange from 2010 to 2017 with two-stage least squares(2SLS)method.The dissertation chooses whether the enterprises are mandated to disclose CSR report according to the CSR disclosure mandate enacted in Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2008 as a valid instrument variable(IV).The main conclusions of this dissertation are:(1)CSR plays significantly positive effects on enterprise TFP.Notably,this positive influence is a local average treatment effects(LATE)for only compliers,that is,enterprises that are sensitive to the mandatory CSR disclosure.When enterprises increase their CSR score by 1 point for compilers,their TFP will increase by 2.85 percent.A series of robustness tests demonstrate the reliability of our conclusions.(2)This dissertation also explores the influences of CSR towards shareholders,employees,consumers,environment,and society,on enterprise TFP.The conclusions show that CSR towards employees,consumers,and environment can effectively promote enterprise TFP,while CSR towards shareholders and society has no statistically significant impact on enterprise TFP.(3)The results of heterogeneity analyses find that state-owned enterprises,enterprises without political connection,enterprises belonging to region under low degree of marketization,enterprises belonging to low pollution industry,and enterprises with relatively high executive compensation can significantly enhance their TFP by undertaking CSR.(4)In the process of exploring the potential mechanisms behind CSR and enterprise TFP,this dissertation finds that CSR enhances enterprise TFP by absorbing highly qualified staff,obtaining more credit funds and social capital.This dissertation contributes to the existed literature in several ways.First,the role of CSR in affecting enterprise TFP has garnered little attention,this dissertation tries to fill this research gap by using the 2SLS method.Furthermore,to the best of our knowledge,this is the first empirical study to explore the impacts of CSR towards different types of stakeholders on enterprise TFP,and the conclusions find that CSR towards employee,consumer,and environment have significant positive effects on enterprise TFP.Besides,this dissertation proceeds to do heterogeneity analyses and explore the potential mechanisms underlying the relationship between CSR and enterprise TFP.Second,this dissertation proposes a novel IV to solve the endogeneity problems with 2SLS method.Previous studies tend to use the industry average CSR as the IV,however,this IV can produce inconsistent estimates and distort inference.This dissertation chooses whether the enterprises are mandated to disclose CSR report according to the CSR disclosure mandate enacted in Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2008 as the IV.The mandatory CSR disclosure has not been used as an IV in the extant literature.The empirical evidence verifies that the mandatory CSR disclosure meets the independence,exclusion,first stage,and monotonicity assumptions,and thus can be served as a valid IV.Third,this dissertation conducts heterogeneity analyses from five aspects.Except for the ownership heterogeneity,the other four aspects of heterogeneity have not been explored before.Besides,in the process of exploring the mechanisms behind CSR and enterprise TFP,this dissertation introduces highly qualified staff,credit funds and social capital to discuss their roles in determining the positive causality between CSR and enterprise TFP by drawing on the mediating effect model.This exploration provides a new attempt to dig out the intrinsic mechanism underlying the relationship between CSR and enterprise TFP.