Planet Money talks about "doing good"

This excerpt from a Planet Money newsletter (Sept. 2019) describes two studies that examine the impact of and reasons for corporations acting in socially responsibly ways.  
Two key findings are:

1. "[W]hen a company says it's dedicated to helping disadvantaged children, they can pay much less and get much more."
2. "[C]orporations use their charitable giving in politically strategic ways, giving more money to influential congressional districts when it suits their purposes. [The authors] call it 'tax-exempt lobbying.'"

John List, a coauther of one of the papers, offers three conclusions.

1. "[R]easons [exist] to be cynical about corporate social responsibility." 
2. "[Y]es, [the] research shows that 'people generally want to do good.' 
3. [T]his includes those corporate executives who signed that statement saying their companies are about more than just profits." 
4. "[T]he real reason for their recent statement, like other efforts to paint themselves as a force for social good, comes down to dollars and cents."