We present a new approach for content analysis to quantify document tone. We find a significant relation between our measure of the tone of 10-Ks and market reaction for both negative and positive words. We also find that the appropriate choice of term weighting in content analysis is at least as important as, and perhaps more important than, a complete and accurate compilation of the word list. Furthermore, we show that our approach circumvents the need to subjectively partition words into positive and negative word lists. Our approach reliably quantifies the tone of IPO prospectuses as well, and we find that the document score is negatively related to IPO underpricing.

We investigate the time variability of abnormal returns from socially responsible investing (SRI). Using portfolio regressions and event studies on multiple data sources, including analyst ratings, firm announcements, and realized incidents, we find that highly rated SRI stocks outperform lowly rated SRI stocks during good economic times, for example, periods with high market valuations or aggregate consumption, but underperform during bad times, such as recessions. This variation in abnormal returns of high-SR stocks vis-à-vis low SR stocks is consistent with a wealth-dependent investor preference for SR stocks that leads to an increased (decreased) demand for SRI during good (bad) times.