How does CSR disclosure affect dividend payments in emerging markets?

This article examines the nexus between corporate social responsibility disclosures (CSRD) and dividend payout decisions in the context of emerging markets. Using hand-collected sample of listed firms from India, China, Indonesia, Pakistan, Malaysia, Korea, Turkey, and Russia over the period 2010-2018, our results show that CSR disclosures exert a negative impact on corporate dividend payments. Further, this effect is more prevalent for firms having higher institutional ownership. However, the results remain unaffected by the differences in legal origin i.e. civil law or common law, of the sample countries. Further, our main results are supported by a number of sensitivity tests, including reduced sample size, alternative dividend payment measures, and estimation techniques.