Graduation Year

2021

Date of Submission

5-2021

Document Type

Campus Only Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Economics

Reader 1

Darren Filson

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©2021 Pearl G Park

Abstract

The resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 as a result of George Floyd’s death sparked the largest political movement in the history of the U.S., extracting public support for BLM from consumers and companies. This dramatic departure from previous hesitation of firms to participate in corporate political advocacy (CPA), a growing subsection of corporate social responsibility (CSR), suggests that firms believe there is value in these actions. In order to evaluate if company support for BLM had significant effects on firm value, I employ event study methodology using one announcement for 80 firms in the S&P 100 who indicated support for BLM from late May to September 2020. Although I find a slightly positive average effect of announcement, it is not found to be significant at any level. Firm-level analyses show that 13 out of 80 firms experienced individually significant abnormal returns at the time of announcement, although the direction is mixed. The results also indicate that financial investment towards racial equality or BLM has a significant positive effect on abnormal returns for a firm.

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