The “best corporate citizens”: Are they good for their shareholders?

Since 2000, Business Ethics magazine has published a list of the 100 Best Corporate Citizens. Our event study finds significant positive abnormal returns for new companies added to the annual listing on the press release date of the survey, both initially and in subsequent survey releases. Over longer holding periods, the top 100 companies consistently outperform the S&P 500, yet are not significantly different from a matched set of companies, with the exception of the initial survey year (2000). However, a rebalancing strategy based on new additions outperforms both the S&P 500 and a matched portfolio.