Books in the Palgrave Studies in Impact Finance series

¿Addressing a topic at the forefront of global interests in business and development, this book is the first comprehensive book in the world that addresses ESG wholistically. It combines academic and practical content through multidisciplinary analysis, integrating economics, statistics, finance, strategic management and mathematics with an African focus. The book argues that ESG is largely in the interest of the firms/companies themselves, in addition to benefitting the larger society in which they exist. It also makes it everyone's responsibility to play a part in addressing global climate challenges. Thus, the book views the survival of the corporations, economies and the larger societies as interlinked. It will be of interest to researchers, policymakers and business persons in and outside of Africa.

This book is unique in that it challenges scholarly views on financial inclusion and poverty reduction while also relating financial inclusion and poverty reduction to the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The book deviates from the usual method of analyzing financial inclusion, which relies on bank accounts or microcredit as success criteria, and instead discusses how the Fourth Industrial Revolution is facilitating digital financial inclusion. With a five-fold goal, this book investigates both past and present readings and understandings of poverty and financial inclusion. To begin, it provides a thorough introduction to the Fourth Industrial Revolution and financial inclusion in the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Second, the book dives quite extensively into the theories of financial inclusion in the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Third, the book reconstructs the theory of financial inclusion, moving from traditional to digital financial inclusion, highlighting the role of digital financial inclusion in the transition from an informal financial money market to a formal financial system. The fourth goal is to evaluate the tools and effects of digital financial inclusion on poverty. Finally, it provides case studies of digital financial inclusion and the future of digital financial inclusion in emerging and developing countries. This book will be of interest to academics, students and practitioners in a range of disciplines, including finance, development economics, and consumer economics.

Ethical discourse is commonly not a priority in a conventional finance syllabus. Moral sentiments often take a back seat to market sentiments, even in shaping the direction of ethical finance business. This anomaly persists despite growing interest in ethical finance. Taking an interdisciplinary and diverse perspective, this book enriches the evolving definition and scope of ethical finance literature by focusing on actors, products and regulation that shape markets. Considering the gap between theory and practice, this book bridges academic and professional knowledge in unpacking ethical and governance issues in the financial industry. In an effort to include as many viewpoints as possible, regardless of popularity or who holds them, the book editors gathered thoughts from diverse fields, including accounting, economics, ethics, finance, governance, law, management, philosophy and religion. Appealing to academic and non-academic stakeholders with an interest in ethics and finance, this book is the result of and a testament to a distinct educational and public engagement project that included different generations and communities, for future reference.

This book presents new research on innovative financial instruments and approaches available to implement nature-based solutions (NBS) at various scales and in different contexts.

The role of big finance and technology in social change is rapidly evolving. This book examines why large financial players are entering the social sector through social finance.

This book investigates sustainability, CSR, climate change adaptation, the relevance of ESG scores and their impact on firm value and growth.

This book addresses the increasingly urgent question: How can governments be made more accountable for the quality of their environmental stewardship?It explores:Enhanced national State of the Environment reporting and integration of environmental outcomes in key national indicators.Mainstreaming environmental goals, targets, and risks by integrating them in fiscal policy and the annual budget¿a government¿s most important policy instrument.Promoting sustainability by progressively exposing and eliminating harmful tax and expenditure policies, putting a price on pollution, and providing environmental public goods.Civil society environmental monitoring.The book combines in-depth assessment of the latest climate/green budgeting literature and country practices with discussion of how to implement green fiscal policies. The framework is deliberately ambitious given the severity, scale, and urgency of climate changeand biodiversity loss. The book will be of interest to ministry of finance, budget, and planning officials, to environment sector agencies, oversight institutions, international organizations, civil society organizations, and to academics and students in the fields of environmental studies, development studies, economics, public finance, and public policy.

To bridge the gap, humanitarian organizations are increasingly utilizing innovative financing tools such as impact bonds, faith-based finance and other innovative financial products and services to mobilize greater funding to address humanitarian needs.

This book sheds light on current issues in sustainable finance through an in-depth analysis and discussion of relevant sustainable products and sustainable initiatives of several financial institutions.

This includes the potential role of digitalisation and blockchain in fostering green finance, the crucial role of the effective financing of the agriculture to reach climate and environmental targets and the possible relationship between sustainable finance and other forms of "alternative" finance.

In an effort to include as many viewpoints as possible, regardless of popularity or who holds them, the book editors gathered thoughts from diverse fields, including accounting, economics, ethics, finance, governance, law, management, philosophy and religion.

Accountancy encompasses much more than is normally considered, especially from a social responsibility point of view. This book brings fresh ideas and an innovative approach to accountancy theory and practice as well as critical views about professional thinking in accountancy.

Despite growing discussions on the relationship between sustainability and finance, so far little attention has been given to the relation linking sustainability-related risks and financial risks.

The innovative nature of research is expressed through the study of new phenomena in finance including sustainable financial systems, sustainable finance, ESG risk and individual and institutional motivations of financial managers in the sustainability concept.

This book is the first publication to provide a comprehensive overview about the market, financial instruments and the associated impact assessment for interested practitioners and academics.

It explores the interests of managing authorities, microcredit institutions, operators and other financial intermediaries involved in microcredit programming activities, and offers some core strategic and operational recommendations for the use of structural funds in the microcredit sector.

This book offers a comprehensive comparative analysis of the microcredit guarantee funds adopted in three South European countries and in three North African countries. It focuses on three keys areas: analysis of the regulatory framework, mapping of microcredit institutions and analysis of the main features of guarantee funds.

This book analyzes the whole path to justice: from the decision to enter the path to justice until justice is achieved and applies a mixed-methods approach using quantitative and qualitative data.

This book provides a preliminary attempt to understand the impact investors' preferences and characteristics. It offers an empirical insight of the main features characterizing social risk of Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) and explores the correlation existing between social risk and financial return.

This includes the potential role of digitalisation and blockchain in fostering green finance, the crucial role of the effective financing of the agriculture to reach climate and environmental targets and the possible relationship between sustainable finance and other forms of "alternative" finance.

The innovative nature of research is expressed through the study of new phenomena in finance including sustainable financial systems, sustainable finance, ESG risk and individual and institutional motivations of financial managers in the sustainability concept.

This Palgrave Pivot aims to build a bridge between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainable finance in financial markets. It investigates whether thematic social responsible funds obtain different risk-return than traditional funds, and finally, assesses whether equity crowdfunding could foster social innovation.

This Palgrave Pivot aims to examine the bourgeoning relationship between the Principles for Responsible Investment and the Credit Rating Industry. Since May of 2016, when the partnership was initially publicised, the PRI have endeavoured to incorporate Credit Rating Agencies into its initiative via its 'ESG in Credit Ratings Initiative', and have been working diligently to find, and create common ground between Credit Rating Agencies and Institutional Investors seeking to be more forward-looking in their investment approaches. However, in recent years the 'Big Two' Credit Rating Agencies - Standard & Poor's and Moody's - have finally received record fines for their conduct in the run-up to the Financial Crisis. There is a need, then, to examine the incorporation of the Credit Rating Agencies into such a progressive initiative. To achieve this objective, this book examines the field of 'responsible investing', the credit rating industry, and the power dynamic that exists between the rating industry, investors, and the PRI (via its 'Initiative').

The first section offers an introduction to the role of finance in achieving sustainability, and includes an overview of the six areas-sustainable investing, impact investing, decentralized finance, conservation finance, and cleantech finance.