Corporate Sustainability Cost and Firm Value of Oil and Gas Firms in Nigeria

This study empirically examined the effect of corporate sustainability cost on the firm value of oil and gas firms in Nigeria. Specifically, the study delved into the effect of employee expenditure, tax expenditure, and community development cost on firm value (proxied by Tobin's Q) of the selected oil and gas firms in Nigeria. The study used a secondary sourced data extracted from the annual report and financial statements of the firms for the period of 2009-2018. Ex-post facto research design was adopted, while analytical tools employed were descriptive statistics and Vector Auto-Regression (VAR) analysis technique. Necessary diagnostic tests such as Levin, Lin & Chu t* panel unit (stationarity), Pedroni panel cointegration and Jarque-Bera goodness of fit (normality) test were considered. Finding revealed that employee expenditure and community development cost have longrun positive effect on Tobin's Q, while expenditure on tax is an inhibiting factor to Tobin's Q of oil and gas firms in Nigeria. In conclusion, corporate sustainability cost contributes positively to firm value of oil and gas sector in Nigeria. Based on these findings, it was recommended among other things, the need for increased salaries of employees and adequate support to the community for the company to thrive