The Relationship Between Corporate Social Responsibility and Tax Avoidance

Abstract

This chapter highlights the impact of CSR on the tax avoidance of French firms, as well as the moderating role of directors with experience abroad on this relationship. On a sample of 55 listed French firms during the period 2007 to 2016, the authors perform the generalized least square method to correct the problems of heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation. They find that socially responsible firms refrain from making tax avoidance strategies, but argue that directors with foreign experience take advantage of the reputation of socially responsible firms as a hedge to help them optimize their tax avoidance strategy.