Open access
Aug 2026
Does Corporate D&I Engagement Payoff? Insights from Cost of Debt Analysis
The study explores how a firm’s Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) initiatives affect its costs of debt. We find that only third-party verified D&I controversies significantly raise firms’ bond yield spreads at issuance, while self-reported D&I performance has no significant impact. Our findings suggest that the discrepancy...
Liang Guo, Lin Zhao, Yu Liu et al.
· Applied Finance Letters · 0 citations