Speaker
Description
The debate on the impact of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities by mining companies on local development has largely been based on anecdotal rather than empirical evidence. We provide empirical evidence on the impact of CSR of large-scale industrial mining companies on education, child undernutrition and household wealth in 14 African countries between 2010 and 2019. We combine a novel mining dataset with
individual-level data from the Demographic and Health Surveys. We estimate a two-way fixed effects model, Callaway & Sant’Anna (2021)’s model, and a spatial difference-in-differences model. We find that CSR initiatives have an no effect on education and child undernutrition and a negative effect on wealth. We also explore factors that could drive CSR contributions. Although results lean predominantly towards a functionalist motivations of CSR, the approach to CSR also aligns with development and Public Relations driven objectives
