"Using geographical distribution data on corporate philanthropy in China from 2009 to 2016, we provide robust evidence of companies’ revenue-driven regional favoritism. Specifically, companies donate more to regions where they obtain revenue than to other regions. Further evidence suggests that this revenue-driven regional favoritism may have both reputational and political motivations. Further analysis suggests that China’s targeted poverty alleviation policy has compromised revenue-driven regional favoritism while increasing the amount of money donated to poor regions. Overall, we enrich understanding of decision-making on corporate philanthropy. We also demonstrate that companies can use the geographical distribution of corporate philanthropy strategically to obtain consumer and government favor in regions where they operate."

"The diversity-led organizations, that are more often addressing equity-deserving communities, received philanthropic support three times less often, and support from less funders than the conventional-led organizations. These results demonstrate that environmental philanthropy in Canada favors a large set of established organizations and perpetuates a landscape of exclusion for diversity-led organizations working on the low-carbon energy transition. By perpetuating disparities through funding, philanthropy is reinforcing inequities among marginalized communities. This in turn is setting back the progress of equity in low-carbon energy transitions in Canada."

"Microinsurance emerged out of different but parallel debates about the reformulation and expansion of social protection amidst the devastation of structural adjustment. It was, at least in its initial articulations, explicitly counterposed to the ‘market’-based solutions proffered by the World Bank, the IMF, and their allies. Yet, by the early 2000s, microinsurance and microcredit were being promoted in strikingly similar terms to the approaches they had initially opposed, and by the same actors."

"Holding several factors constant, we conclude that receiving continuous loans from ACME had some positive effects on Haitian businesses. We find a positive impact on business expansion through various outcomes. Compared to new clients, firms that had completed at least three loan cycles had a higher probability of hiring new workers in 2018 and of increasing their merchandise stock. They also reported higher profits and savings. The results also highlight the gender-differentiated impact of microloans on businesses. Although ACME loans are critical in helping women open new outlets, the outcomes of increasing stock and adding new services are found only among male-owned businesses."

"Most of the existing literature on the effects of microinsurance addresses the impacts on the well-being of low-income families or economic development. This current paper bridges the gap by analyzing the effects of microinsurance on the existing insurance market. Our results show that the competition between micro and conventional insurance will decrease the insurer’s market demand for conventional insurance. Both the premiums and profits of conventional insurance will reduce after providing microinsurance. In the asymmetric case with only one provider, we show that the provider’s premium for conventional insurance and its profit are lower than the non-providers. Our analysis provides guidelines for commercial insurers’ product decisions and gives policy suggestions for the future development of microinsurance."

"The necessity to mobilize capital on a localized or regionalized basis has been labeled Place-Based Impact Investing. This article will review the research and conclusions that have fueled the need for Place-Based Impact Investing, identify the current thought leaders, and describe some of the early efforts at mobilizing "legacy capital" into communities to support the growing but underfunded innovative companies. We also will explore some of the new methods, vehicles, and overlooked tax laws that can accelerate the mobilization of capital on a more geographic and meritocratic manner."

"Impact investors pursue both financial and social goals and have become an important source of funding for social enterprises. Our study assesses impact investor criteria when screening social enterprises. Applying an experimental conjoint analysis to a sample of 179 impact investors, we find that the three most important criteria are the authenticity of the founding team, the importance of the societal problem targeted by the venture, and the venture's financial sustainability. We then compare the importance of these screening criteria across different types of impact investors (i.e., donors, equity investors, and debt investors). We find that donors pay more attention to the importance of the societal problem and less attention to financial sustainability than do equity and debt investors. Additionally, equity investors place a higher value on the large-scale implementation of the social project than do debt investors. We contribute to the nascent literature on impact investing by documenting how impact investors make investment decisions and by providing a nuanced view of different investor types active in this novel market. Practical implications exist for both impact investors and social enterprises."

"One of the ways to understand the success of impact investing firms is to examine how they add value to the social enterprises they invest. Did their investment boost social and/or environmental change? And what type of support, beyond financial capital, can they provide to enhance impact? Drawing on a design-based methodology, we seek to address some of these questions by developing a tool called the Impact Oriented Value Framework. Putting impact at the centre of the funds' purpose, the framework provides actionable solutions to infuse impact into investors’ non-financial support strategies and activities, enhancing their additionality to portfolio companies as well as their contribution to the impact ecosystem."

"Using a unique sample of retail impact investors, this study evaluates how investors deal with the challenge of aligning their financial and their nonfinancial goals. We find that investors with stronger nonfinancial motives are more likely to expect the overperformance of an impact investment and the underperformance of traditional equity and bond investments than investors with weaker nonfinancial motives. This cross-asset relationship between nonfinancial motives and expected performance indicates that investors form expectations that fit with the investment decisions that their nonfinancial motives are likely to motivate. We also find that after experiencing losses, investors with stronger nonfinancial motives are less likely to revise their expectation that the impact investment will underperform and more likely to expect that the impact investment will overperform than other investors. Our findings provide further evidence that preferences can affect expectations, and challenge conclusions drawn from observed behavior regarding investors’ willingness to pay for impact."

"We examine spillover and hedging among impact investing and agricultural commodities. Results demonstrate that impact investing is a prominent spillover transmitter during both calm conditions and crises, while agricultural commodities are typically receivers. Analysis indicates that hedging effectiveness is enhanced by portfolios containing impact investing and agricultural products, with this more so during crises. Additionally, analysis reveals that irrespective of position on the risk aversion spectrum, investors gain utility substantially by including impact investing and agricultural assets, even considering transaction costs. These findings add to the extant literature and offer practical implications for investors, fund managers, and policymakers regarding risk management perspectives and portfolio diversification."