Awe of the blue minds: Location, corporate social responsibility, and firm value

Abstract

Neuropsychologists claim that exposure to a massive water scene triggers the feeling of Awe which causes more prosocial behavior. I find that coastal firms have significantly higher corporate social responsibility (CSR) scores than non-coastal firms. The difference-in-difference test shows that CSR engagement erodes when firms relocate away from coasts. These results are robust to the use of propensity score matching and entropy balancing to address selection bias, Oster's test to address omitted variable bias, and control for institutional ownership, social capital, religiosity, CEO and local political orientation, and natural disaster risk. Further analysis shows that CSR creates value only for coastal firms.