We use religious background as a proxy for local risk-taking attitudes and investigate whether geographical variation in religion affects corporate environmental responsibility (CER) with regards to corporate cash policies and profitability. We conjecture that the presence of environmentally conscious firms would be higher in areas with more Catholics relative to Protestants. Study data comprises of the largest publicly traded U.S.-listed firms of Newsweek's green rankings of 2015–2016. We use green scores and the concentration of Catholic to Protestant population ratio as proxies for CER and religiosity, respectively. We provide robust evidence that corporate environmental practices attenuate the demand for precautionary cash reserves to protect firms from unforeseeable risks. Furthermore, environmentally conscious firms located in high risk-taking areas gain financial stability and improve profitability, strengthening their CER. The findings provide contributions to risk management literature and document the importance of firms' efforts to harmonize social behavior for sustainable financial policies.

中文翻译：

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企业环境责任和宗教信仰对企业现金持有决策和盈利能力的影响：来自美国可持续发展政策的证据

我们使用宗教背景作为当地风险承担态度的代表，并调查宗教的地域差异是否会影响企业现金政策和盈利能力方面的企业环境责任 (CER)。我们推测，与新教徒相比，在天主教徒较多的地区，具有环保意识的公司的存在会更高。研究数据包括《新闻周刊》2015 年至 2016 年绿色排名中最大的美国上市公司。我们分别使用绿色分数和天主教与新教人口比率作为 CER 和宗教信仰的代理。我们提供了强有力的证据，证明企业环境实践减弱了对预防性现金储备的需求，以保护公司免受不可预见的风险。此外，位于高风险地区的具有环保意识的公司可以获得财务稳定性并提高盈利能力，从而加强其 CER。研究结果为风险管理文献提供了贡献，并记录了公司为实现可持续金融政策而协调社会行为的重要性。