Abstract

This paper investigates the comparative value relevance of donation and advertising expenditures before and after the 2008 global financial crisis in listed Korean stock markets between 2004 and 2011. To test whether the value relevance of donation and advertising expenditures is associated with the 2008 global financial crisis, this paper first divides its sample into pre- and post-December 31, 2007, periods and then divides those into several subgroups to observe value relevance changes according to the characteristics and conditions of listed firms in the Korean stock markets. This paper’s empirical results offer important evidence concerning the comparative changes in the value relevance of advertising and donation expenditures. First, advertising and donation expenditures have positive value relevance before and after the global economic crisis and show a positive association with firm value in every subsample group divided according to firm characteristics. Second, the results show significant time-period differences in the value relevance of donation and advertising expenditures before and after the global financial crisis. The results also show that value relevance changes according to the circumstance and contexts of the firms (e.g., KOSPI vs. KOSDAQ, large vs. small and medium, high technology vs. low technology).

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