Corporate social responsibility and zero leverage

This paper aims to investigate the link between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Zero Leverage (ZL) policy of firms. We use panel logistic multivariate regression to determine the socially responsible behavior of ZL firms and their levered counterparts. Our proxies for CSR are corporate soc...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Uz Zaman, Qamar, Ehsan, Sadaf, Hassan, Mohammad Kabir, Javed, Muzhar, Ul Hassan, Syed Iftikhar
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2022
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/19398/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/19398/1/jeko_561-3.pdf
_version_ 1848814829868941312
author Uz Zaman, Qamar
Ehsan, Sadaf
Hassan, Mohammad Kabir
Javed, Muzhar
Ul Hassan, Syed Iftikhar
author_facet Uz Zaman, Qamar
Ehsan, Sadaf
Hassan, Mohammad Kabir
Javed, Muzhar
Ul Hassan, Syed Iftikhar
author_sort Uz Zaman, Qamar
building UKM Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description This paper aims to investigate the link between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Zero Leverage (ZL) policy of firms. We use panel logistic multivariate regression to determine the socially responsible behavior of ZL firms and their levered counterparts. Our proxies for CSR are corporate social responsibility disclosure and corporate tax contribution against the proxies of ZL and almost zero-leverage (AZL). The sample firm-year observations of Pakistani listed firms from 2009-2018 are further divided in subsamples for short term ZL and long term ZL firms. We also test the constraints hypothesis for our sample firms. We found that CSR and ZL policy complement each other, adding to the firm’s financial and social sustainability. The positive relationship between CSR and ZL is more significant in dividend-paying firms. Further, results support that financially unconstrained socially responsible firms have more probability to choose ZL or AZL policy. This study provides initial evidence regarding the relationship between CSR behavior and ZL policy of firms. Further, this study is the pioneer to introduce tax contribution as a proxy of CSR.
first_indexed 2025-11-15T00:40:18Z
format Article
id oai:generic.eprints.org:19398
institution Universiti Kebangasaan Malaysia
institution_category Local University
language English
last_indexed 2025-11-15T00:40:18Z
publishDate 2022
publisher Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling oai:generic.eprints.org:193982022-08-18T07:14:06Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/19398/ Corporate social responsibility and zero leverage Uz Zaman, Qamar Ehsan, Sadaf Hassan, Mohammad Kabir Javed, Muzhar Ul Hassan, Syed Iftikhar This paper aims to investigate the link between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Zero Leverage (ZL) policy of firms. We use panel logistic multivariate regression to determine the socially responsible behavior of ZL firms and their levered counterparts. Our proxies for CSR are corporate social responsibility disclosure and corporate tax contribution against the proxies of ZL and almost zero-leverage (AZL). The sample firm-year observations of Pakistani listed firms from 2009-2018 are further divided in subsamples for short term ZL and long term ZL firms. We also test the constraints hypothesis for our sample firms. We found that CSR and ZL policy complement each other, adding to the firm’s financial and social sustainability. The positive relationship between CSR and ZL is more significant in dividend-paying firms. Further, results support that financially unconstrained socially responsible firms have more probability to choose ZL or AZL policy. This study provides initial evidence regarding the relationship between CSR behavior and ZL policy of firms. Further, this study is the pioneer to introduce tax contribution as a proxy of CSR. Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2022 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/19398/1/jeko_561-3.pdf Uz Zaman, Qamar and Ehsan, Sadaf and Hassan, Mohammad Kabir and Javed, Muzhar and Ul Hassan, Syed Iftikhar (2022) Corporate social responsibility and zero leverage. Jurnal Ekonomi Malaysia, 56 (1). pp. 33-46. ISSN 0127-1962 https://www.ukm.my/jem/issue/v56i1/
spellingShingle Uz Zaman, Qamar
Ehsan, Sadaf
Hassan, Mohammad Kabir
Javed, Muzhar
Ul Hassan, Syed Iftikhar
Corporate social responsibility and zero leverage
title Corporate social responsibility and zero leverage
title_full Corporate social responsibility and zero leverage
title_fullStr Corporate social responsibility and zero leverage
title_full_unstemmed Corporate social responsibility and zero leverage
title_short Corporate social responsibility and zero leverage
title_sort corporate social responsibility and zero leverage
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/19398/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/19398/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/19398/1/jeko_561-3.pdf