Pandej ChintrakarnSirimon TreepongkarunaPornsit JirapornSang Mook LeeUniversity of Western AustraliaMahidol UniversityPennsylvania State University2019-08-232019-08-232018-01-01Journal of Business Ethics. (2018)15730697016745442-s2.0-85053269122https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/20.500.14594/44956© 2018, Springer Nature B.V. We investigate the effect of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT)-supportive corporate policies on credit ratings. To the extent that LGBT-friendly policies are beneficial to the firm and therefore improve its expected cash flows, credit rating agencies should assign more favorable credit ratings to the firm. To alleviate endogeneity concerns, we exploit the variations in the LGBT populations across the states in the U.S. as our instrument. Our instrumental-variable (IV) analysis reveals that firms that adopt LGBT-supportive corporate policies enjoy better credit ratings, supporting the stakeholder and good management hypothesis. Further analysis using propensity score matching also yields consistent results.Mahidol UniversityArts and HumanitiesBusiness, Management and AccountingEconomics, Econometrics and FinanceSocial SciencesSCOPUS10.1007/s10551-018-4009-9