The impact of top-down amplification of economic growth targets on CSR performance-evidence from China

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of top-down amplification of economic growth targets on corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance. We find a significant negative relationship between the amplification and CSR performance. We further explore the underlying mechanisms for such an effect and find that top-down amplification of economic growth targets aggravates firms' operating risk and increases their financial constraints, thereby leading to a decline in CSR performance. Further analysis shows that the effect is more pronounced among firms with less economically important, inefficient external and internal monitoring, in non-state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs), and those with lower facilitation payments. Additionally, we also find that firms with lower CSR performance are more affected by the top-down amplification of economic growth targets in terms of worse operating performance and lower total factor productivity. Overall, our findings provide new insights into the consequences of the top-down amplification of economic growth targets in emerging markets, thus expanding and complementing the existing literature.