Signaling Corporate Social Responsibility: Third-Party Certification versus Brands

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a credence attribute of products, which can be signaled either through a label certified by a third party, or via unsubstantiated claims used as part of a brand-building strategy. We use an experimental posted-offer market with sellers and buyers to compare the impact of these signaling strategies on market efficiency. Only third-party certification gives rise to a separating equilibrium and an increase in CSR investments. Unsubstantiated claims can generate a halo effect on consumers, whereby the latter are nudged into paying more for the same level of CSR investments by firms.