Firms with strong corporate social responsibility (CSR) scores enjoy consistently lower costs of capital financing than firms with weaker CSR track records, according to a study that has won the 2011 Moskowitz Prize for Socially Responsible Investing (SRI).

The Moskowitz Prize, awarded annually by the Haas School’s Center for Responsible Business in cooperation with the Social Investment Forum, went to four co-authors of the study:

• Sadok El Ghoul, University of Alberta, Canada
• Omrane Guedhami, Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina
• Chuck C. Y. Kwok, Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina
• Dev Mishra, University of Saskatchewan, Canada

Their winning study, “Does Corporate Social Responsibility Affect the Cost of Capital,” was published in the Journal of Banking and Finance (Vol. 35, Issue, 9, Sept. 2011).     Rest