Greed Gone Good: A Roadmap to Creating Social and Financial Value

203 Pages·2021·9.117 MB·English

by  Jane Elizabeth Hughes

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“COVID- 19 has given rise to an unprecedented global health and economic
crisis. The pandemic, which disproportionately affected the poor, highlights the
importance of inclusive and sustainable economic growth, but shifting toward
an inclusive and sustainable growth paradigm requires vast resources. This book
explores a promising new area of finance—impact finance—which can help the
world build back better. Written in crystal clear language that is accessible to
general readers, it is a must-r ead for anyone interested in how impact finance can
help unleash private capital for a sustainable future.”
Donghyun Park, Principal Economist, Economic Research and Regional
Cooperation Department, Asian Development Bank
“A sustainable future requires vast investments for environmental and social goals.
At the same time, huge amounts of private finance are desperately searching for
productive investment opportunities. Therefore, the fundamental challenge facing
finance in the 21st century is harnessing and leveraging private capital for green
and social investments. Innovative financial instruments such as impact bonds
help reconcile private greed with public good. I strongly recommend Greed Gone
Good for anyone interested in understanding how impact bonds satisfy the profit
motive of investors and foster a more sustainable society.”
Shu Tian, Economist, Economic Research and Regional Development
Department, Asian Development Bank
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Greed Gone Good
Greed Gone Good: A Roadmap to Creating Social and Financial Value brings
the how- tos of impact finance to a broad- based audience of investors,
from the individual to the institutional. Written in an engaging, jargon-
free style and loaded with practical advice, it explores the pitfalls and
potential of the burgeoning impact revolution—t he increasingly wide-
spread belief that business and financial leaders should weigh social value
as well as financial value in all of their decisions, to create both a better
business model and a better world.
Cheerleaders have written a number of books advocating the magic
of impact finance. Greed Gone Good hopes for the magic too, but also
believes that an uncritical eye does not effectively advance the cause. We
now have 10 years of impact investing history to examine, and not all of
it is laudable. We could hold hands and sing Kumbaya in praise of impact
finance; or we could employ constructive criticism to figure out what’s
gone well and what hasn’t, and how we should move forward more pro-
ductively. Greed Gone Good focuses on the roadmap—h ow to reorient
and repackage finance and investing in order to deliver on this promise.
In particular, it focuses on how to realize the potential of the impact revo-
lution to become a silver bullet against future failures.
Green Gone Good will have widespread appeal to investors ranging
from individuals and family offices to the world’s largest asset managers
and investors.
Jane Elizabeth Hughes is Professor of Practice at Simmons University
School of Business, and a former director at Social Finance US. She
has served as a consultant to the Asian Development Bank and Inter-
American Development Bank, with whom she worked to catalyze the
development of Social Bond markets. She has written and lectured exten-
sively on impact investing around the world.
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Greed Gone Good
A Roadmap to Creating Social
and Financial Value
Jane Elizabeth Hughes
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First published 2022
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business
© 2022 Jane Elizabeth Hughes
The right of Jane Elizabeth Hughes to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,
and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Hughes, Jane E. (Jane Elizabeth), author.
Title: Greed gone good: a roadmap to creating social and
financial value/Jane Elizabeth Hughes.
Description: Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2022. |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2021008167 (print) | LCCN 2021008168 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780367566517 (hardback) | ISBN 9780367568054 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781003099376 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Economic development–Finance. |
Social responsibility of business. | Sustainable development.
Classification: LCC HD75.8 .H84 2022 (print) |
LCC HD75.8 (ebook) | DDC 338.9–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021008167
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021008168
ISBN: 978- 0- 367- 56651- 7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978- 0- 367- 56805- 4 (pbk)
ISBN: 978- 1- 003- 09937- 6 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Newgen Publishing UK
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This book is dedicated to my husband of 42 years (but
who’s counting?). I’m nothing without you.
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Contents
Acknowledgments x
Introduction: greed gone good 1
1 The impact of globalization, poverty, and inequality 8
2 Greed gone bad: a perversion of capitalism 24
3 Greed gone good: reimagining the model 38
4 Investors: the driving force 59
5 Microfinance: the seeds of the impact revolution 78
6 The revolution goes mainstream: equity markets… 96
7 . …And impact bonds 112
8 Sustainable banking 134
9 Gender- smart investing: are women the silver bullet? 150
10 The way forward 177
Index 182