Abstract: Based on the sample of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2017, this paper examines how economic policy uncertainty affects corporate social responsibility. Empirical results show that the more uncertain economic policies are, the greater extent to which companies are to assume corporate social responsibility. The conclusion is still valid after endogenous treatment and robustness test. This relationship is more pronounced for companies with lower internal control levels and greater earnings volatility. This relationship is more pronounced in state-owned enterprises, and it is more pronounced in non-state-owned enterprises with political connections and in areas with high level of government intervention. Economic policy uncertainty affects the degree of fulfillment of corporate social responsibility by affecting systematic risk faced by companies. The conclusion shows that, in the face of external economic policy uncertainty, on the one hand, companies may use social responsibility fulfillment as a tool to respond to the risk based on their own management risk. On the other hand, the government has incentive to guide companies to actively fulfill social responsibility in order to better achieve government goals when economic policy uncertainty rises.

Key words: economic policy uncertainty, corporate social responsibility, systematic risk, management risk, political connection