Human rights and multinational firm returns

Corporate social responsibility receives increased attention in economic analysis and research, but the knowledge of the effect of ethical issues on company performance is still in its infancy. In this paper we attempt to measure the impact of the human rights issue with an event study. In particular the consequences of press releases of Amnesty International on the returns of multinational firms operating in Indonesia were analyzed. It proved that press releases did not influence the stock returns of these multinational companies significantly. We then discuss potential reasons for the absence of significant findings.