Asian Economic and Financial Review, 2013, 3(5):560-578 560 A DYNAMIC PANEL ANALYSIS OF THE FINANCIAL DETERMINANTS OF CSR IN BANGLADESHI BANKING INDUSTRY Md. Al Mamun Senior Lecturer in Finance at East West University, Dhaka, Bangladesh Kazi Sohog Department of business administration at East West University Ayesha Akhter Department of business administration at East West University. ABSTRACT Studies on corporate social responsibility (CSR) across the world mainly focus on the impact of CSR on a firm’s financial performance. However, there are hardly enough empirical evidences on the firm’s financial determinants of CSR expenditure. Therefore working with panel data from Bangladeshi banking industry over a period of 2002-2011, this study aims at augmenting the financial determinants of CSR expenditures in Bangladeshi banking industry. Results from panel ARDL model for 30 private commercial banks confirm that several financial determinants including total investment, no. of branch, and no. of employees have significant long run impact on the level of bank’s CSR expenditure and thereupon fulfilling firm’s commitment towards the greater society as a corporate citizen. Keywords: Corporate social responsibility (CSR), Bangladeshi banking industry, Panel ARDL. JEL Classification: D21, G21, M41, L21. INTRODUCTION Studies on corporate social responsibilities in various industries across the world mainly focused on the impact of CSR on company’s financial performance. However, till today very little focus has been shed on the opposite phenomenon i.e. the impact of financial performance in determining the level of CSR. Argument for the first trend of studies is quite simple. If we have a positive relationship between a firm’s CSR and its financial performance and the relationship is unidirectional i.e. CSR impacts firm’s financial performance positively then it can be argued that the firm’s CSR is nothing but a form of advertisement and public relatio nship activities, activities Asian Economic and Financial Review journal homepage: http://aessweb.com/journal-detail.php?id=5002