Analyst Perceptions of Corporate Social Responsibility: A Replication and Extension of Ioannou and Serafeim (2015)

We replicate and extend a highly influential study on corporate social responsibility (CSR): “The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Investment Recommendations: Analysts’ Perceptions and Shifting Institutional Logics”. This 2015 publication reported evidence suggesting that analysts were initially skeptical of the value of CSR but became more positive over the ensuing decade – a finding that appeared to explain a connection between CSR and stock returns. Following best practices for replication, we first attempt to replicate the published finding using the original method. We then extend the analysis by using a more precise empirical specification and a longer panel of data. In contrast with the original publication, we find no evidence of a shift in analysts' attitudes toward CSR ratings over time. We conjecture that the original estimates may have been confounded by regression to the mean. Our paper provides revised information on CSR and demonstrates the importance of replication in social science.