China's historical imperial examination system and corporate social responsibility

Using the sample of China's A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2019 and the index of jinshi density to measure the historical imperial examination system, we empirically test the influence of the imperial examination system on corporate social responsibility. We find that the imperial examination system can encourage firms to improve their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) level. The results are robust to using the instrumental variable method, propensity score matching method, Heckman two-step regression, and a series of other tests. The mechanism analysis shows that regional education level and corporate social capital play a mediating role in the promotion of corporate social responsibility by the imperial examination system. Further analysis shows that the characteristics of the board of directors, external supervision pressure, and the shareholding ratio of institutional investors are important factors affecting the positive correlation. We further explore the role of the informal institution in corporate governance.