Essays on CSR Assurance

This thesis examines the opportunistic use of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) assurance and its implications for firms’ financial reporting behaviour and capital markets. Specifically, it focuses on how the heterogeneity amongst CSR reporting firms can be combined with the managerial decision to purchase CSR assurance to identify such opportunistic firms. It investigates both how this opportunistic use of CSR assurance affects financial reporting quality and how capital markets respond to this opportunistic behaviour. Furthermore, this thesis also documents the differential effects of CSR assurance on CSR reporting quality and capital markets based on the type of assurance provider