Corporate Social Responsibility and Stock Returns: Evidence from Palestine Manufacturing Companies

Abstract

This research examines the association between corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure of Palestine's Manufacturing sector listed on the Palestine Exchange (PEX) and stock return. The study used the CSR. Index as a measure of CSR; the employed technique is content analysis to collect CSR data disclosed in the reported financial statement for the years from 2014 until 2021, comprised of 99-year observation, data published on the Palestine Exchange (PEX) website was the source of stock returns in addition to published reports.The result was that there is a negative non-significant relation between stock returns differentials and CSR level of disclosure; one explanation for this result is that PEX is a nonefficient stock market that disclosed information is not adequately nor timely reflected on stock price; another result is that there is no effect of firms size on the relation on CSR and stock returns. Research findings recommended conducting further research on the motivation of CSR disclosure for Palestinian companies in addition to investigating the determinate of CSR discloser on each CSR dimension and its effect on stock returns such as CSR toward employees, CSR towards the environment and exploring other variables such as the relation between the amount spent on CSR and other variables such firm profitability to shed more light on the importance of CSR on firms performance.