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Inclusive Wealth
Monday, February 4th, 2013
GDP is an imperfect measure. The UN Inclusive Wealth Report aims to offer a more rounded picture through considering a country’s assets – including physical, natural and human capital. The report looks at 20 countries and whilst in places it feels a bit Malthusian, it’s an attempt to provide an alternative to GDP and it’s clear that some high growth countries are on an unsustainable track. READ MORE
Shared Value in Emerging Markets
Friday, October 26th, 2012
FSG (funded by the Rockefeller Foundation) have compiled over 30 case studies whilst analysing how corporations can create positive change. The report explains that large companies can act as ‘impact enterprises’, using their size and business models to drive progress at scale. The study looks at a range of sectors – including health, agriculture and financial services – and identifies intersections where companies can intervene to create shared value. READ MORE
21st century craftsmanship
Friday, August 3rd, 2012
Digital platforms and networks are going to reinvigorate local craftsmanship and create a ‘hypercraft economy’ according to one of the EU’s advisors on the digital economy. New concepts like ‘fablabs’ use open source principles, global collaboration and peer review to shift away from an industrial model of production. READ MORE
Impact Investment
Friday, August 3rd, 2012
The Esmee Fairbairn Foundation has invested £750,000 in Bridges Social Entrepreneurs Fund. The fund has to report back not only on its financial performance, but also on its role in job creation. The investment highlights the Foundation’s interest in investing early in order to catalyse further investment, but also how the lines between investment, grantmaking and donations are becoming more indistinct. READ MORE
The Olympics and globalisation
Friday, July 20th, 2012
This table shows how the changing distribution of medals demonstrates the growth of emerging markets over the last hundred years. It’s from a thorough but mostly frivolous report from Goldman Sachs that also looks at the Olympic effect on foreign exchange rates, house prices and stock markets. READ MORE (pdf)
Social investment – Scope take the plunge
Friday, April 20th, 2012
Scope has become one of the first charities to take a serious step into social finance with the launch of a £20m bond. They are pitching it as a straightforward commercial bond (with a reduced coupon and some impact reporting), secured on their retail and fundraising income. It’s important for social finance that products like this are successful. They prove that there is demand among investors for ethical debt and help build trust in charities as reliable organisations. READ MORE
Namibian debt
Wednesday, November 16th, 2011
This week’s notable fact about the Euro crisis was that as the rates on 10-year Italian bonds hit 7%, the Namibian government raised $500m of 10 year money at 5.5%. Namibian debt is now considered a safer bet than Italian or Spanish debt. READ MORE
Prosocial bonuses
Friday, September 2nd, 2011
Why pay bonuses? A recent Australian study has been looking at the impact of “social bonuses” – half of them were given a traditional bonus to spend on themselves and half were given the same amount to spend on a fellow worker. On measures like employee satisfaction, performance and return on investment to the company, the former group showed no measurable improvement. The latter performed better and felt happier. Read more.
Investor perspectives on Social Enterprise
Friday, August 5th, 2011
This in-depth report, commissioned by the City of London and the lottery, looks at what it will take to unlock funds for social enterprise investment. In short, investors want the things they want from all markets: manageable risk, good returns and deeper markets to allow secondary trading. Read more.
Understanding “irrational” generosity
Friday, August 5th, 2011
New psychology research suggests generosity is a sensible evolutionary response. We cooperate in the face of uncertainty, because we’re not sure if we’ll have to deal with the same people in the future. Economics deals in one-off transactions. People deal in relationships. Being nice can be a winning strategy. Read more.