Abstract:
This thesis aims to study the relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and capital structure and the importance of CSR over time. CSR is de fined as company performance regarding social, environmental and corporate governance practises. A fixed
Effects estimation technique is used in the main analysis, followed by some robustness checks of which the GMM estimation technique is one. Using ASSET4 panel data from the Thomson Reuters Eikon database, only little evidence is found in support of this relationship. Only the GMM estimation technique shows a negative relationship between the corporate governance pillar and capital structure. Surprisingly, although corporate governance is not related to the capital structure in the main analysis, the strength of the corporate governance-capital structure relationship has increased over the years.
