The value of names: civil society, information, and governing multinationals on the global periphery
Civil society plays a crucial role in governance where laws and authority are weak. Increas-ingly, multinationals operate in these complex environments. We study how a key strategy of international civil society—disseminating information about human rights abuse—impacts multi-nationals. To do so, we...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Working paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
University of Oxford
2022
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| _version_ | 1826308229293932544 |
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| author | Kreitmeir, D Lane, N Raschky, PA |
| author_facet | Kreitmeir, D Lane, N Raschky, PA |
| author_sort | Kreitmeir, D |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | Civil society plays a crucial role in governance where laws and authority are weak. Increas-ingly,
multinationals operate in these complex environments. We study how a key strategy of international
civil society—disseminating information about human rights abuse—impacts multi-nationals. To do
so, we focus on trends at the center of international campaigns: the assassination of activists, and
collect 20 years of data related to murders associated with the global mining sector. Using event
study methodology, we estimate the impact of human rights reporting on the stock price of firms
connected to events. We find that the effect of the human rights spotlight is substantial. Firms named
in assassination coverage have large, negative abnormal returns following assassinations. Our
estimates imply a median loss in market capitalization of 100 million USD. Meanwhile, these events
do not impact the social responsibility scores of firms. We show that the media plays a crucial role in
these effects: the negative impact of assassinations is strongest when they coincide with calm news
cycles versus peak news cycles, when news may be crowded out by large, international stories. In
addition, we argue our results are driven by events where companies are explicitly named in the
reporting. Last, we show that assassinations are positively related to the royalties paid by mining
projects to domestic governments. JEL: O16, O17, D74, G3, G14, L82 |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T07:14:53Z |
| format | Working paper |
| id | oxford-uuid:239a20e6-afa7-4bcb-aa2f-f0da27e90668 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T07:14:53Z |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| publisher | University of Oxford |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:239a20e6-afa7-4bcb-aa2f-f0da27e906682022-08-09T14:22:13ZThe value of names: civil society, information, and governing multinationals on the global peripheryWorking paperhttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_8042uuid:239a20e6-afa7-4bcb-aa2f-f0da27e90668EnglishSymplectic ElementsUniversity of Oxford2022Kreitmeir, DLane, NRaschky, PACivil society plays a crucial role in governance where laws and authority are weak. Increas-ingly, multinationals operate in these complex environments. We study how a key strategy of international civil society—disseminating information about human rights abuse—impacts multi-nationals. To do so, we focus on trends at the center of international campaigns: the assassination of activists, and collect 20 years of data related to murders associated with the global mining sector. Using event study methodology, we estimate the impact of human rights reporting on the stock price of firms connected to events. We find that the effect of the human rights spotlight is substantial. Firms named in assassination coverage have large, negative abnormal returns following assassinations. Our estimates imply a median loss in market capitalization of 100 million USD. Meanwhile, these events do not impact the social responsibility scores of firms. We show that the media plays a crucial role in these effects: the negative impact of assassinations is strongest when they coincide with calm news cycles versus peak news cycles, when news may be crowded out by large, international stories. In addition, we argue our results are driven by events where companies are explicitly named in the reporting. Last, we show that assassinations are positively related to the royalties paid by mining projects to domestic governments. JEL: O16, O17, D74, G3, G14, L82 |
| spellingShingle | Kreitmeir, D Lane, N Raschky, PA The value of names: civil society, information, and governing multinationals on the global periphery |
| title | The value of names: civil society, information, and governing multinationals on the global periphery |
| title_full | The value of names: civil society, information, and governing multinationals on the global periphery |
| title_fullStr | The value of names: civil society, information, and governing multinationals on the global periphery |
| title_full_unstemmed | The value of names: civil society, information, and governing multinationals on the global periphery |
| title_short | The value of names: civil society, information, and governing multinationals on the global periphery |
| title_sort | value of names civil society information and governing multinationals on the global periphery |
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