"We study two interventions for underemployed youth across five Ethiopian sites: a $300 grant to spur self-employment, and a job offer to an industrial firm. Despite significant impacts on occupational choice, income, and health in the first year, after five years we see nearly complete convergence across all groups and outcomes. Shortrun increases in productivity and earnings from the grant dissipate as recipients exit their micro-enterprises. Adverse effects of factory work on health found after one year also appear to be temporary. These results suggest that one-time and one-dimensional interventions may struggle to overcome barriers to wage- or self-employment."

"Drawing on available academic literature and policy evaluation studies, the report aims to identify the impact of public support through equity instruments on firm performance, and puts forward main lessons on policy design and implementation. It employs a mixed- method approach based on evaluation synthesis (Edler at al. 2008)."

"I present a model of financing social enterprises to delineate the role of impact investors relative to "pure" philanthropists. I characterize the optimal scale and structure of a social enterprise when financed by grants and when financed by investments. The analysis yields two heuristics to guide impact investors. First, investments allow a financier to discipline inefficient spending. Second, investments may enable a social enterprise to exploit new opportunities for profit and may increase the enterprise's scale relative to when grant financed. I quantify these heuristics for the case of Husk Power, a social enterprise that has received impact investment."

"A commonly held belief among investors is that impact investing-adding environmental, social or governance criteria to the investment selection process-will require a trade-off in performance. Though this may have been true in the early days of impact investing, the space has evolved significantly in the last decade.
In this paper, we will evaluate current impact investing by examining:
- What impact investing is and how it has evolved to be a viable investment approach
- How investors can maintain returns in their portfolios while investing for impact
- How impact investing can be used to identify risks and opportunities in the market
- Historical returns from a range of impact investments
- How investors can start accessing the impact investing marketplace today"

"This report from Oxfam and Sumerian Partners questions some of the assumptions around impact investment and highlights the experience of enterprises contributing to poverty reduction so that they might be better served by the field. It argues that the sector risks being discredited due to rising, unrealistic expectations about financial returns."

"The world is on the brink of a revolution in how we solve society's toughest problems. The force driving this revolution is "impact investing", which harnesses entrepreneurship, innovation and capital to power social progress. This report, Impact Investing: The Invisible Heart of Markets - Harnessing the power of entrepreneurship, innovation and capital for public good, examines what is needed to catalyse the growth of a global market for impact investment. It makes recommendations that can be implemented across Taskforce countries and beyond to deliver better social outcomes and improve millions of lives across the world. The report calls on governments and the financial sector to take action to unleash $1 trillion of private sector impact investment to tackle social problems."

"The study reviews the current state of impact investments in Singapore and Hong Kong, particularly those that have engaged with foundations. It further looks at the trends and challenges of the impact investment sector before presenting a list of recommendations."

"This research note asserts that impact investment, which is intended to create positive social or environmental impact beyond financial return, constitutes a new asset class. The report also includes the first large-scale data analysis of return expectations from more than 1,000 impact investments and compares them to established benchmarks for emerging and developed market debt and equity returns. We hope this report helps to advance a broader understanding of impact investing as an appropriate and economically effective way to complement government and philanthropy in solving the world's greatest problems at scale."

"This knowledge brief aims to provide an overview of the IMM landscape in Nigeria and draws lessons from organizations who have IMM experience in West Africa. The knowledge brief focuses on providing an understanding of how impact is defined by some organizations, what elements they take into consideration when designing an IMM strategy, why they measure impact, the upsides and downsides of standardization, challenges they face in measuring and managing impact, and how they utilize data to drive impact. The knowledge brief also shares the IMM journey of three organizations: Aspire Coronation Trust (ACT) Foundation, LEAP Africa and MBC Africa, and provides recommendations on implementing IMM."

"The report examines the impact measurement approaches of 13 GIIN members (including development finance institutions (DFIs), fund managers, banks, and foundations) who invest directly into healthcare delivery companies- detailing the metrics, methodologies, and assumptions that are commonly used by these investors, as well as the challenges and limitations they face.

The report aims to bring greater transparency to the diversity and limitations of current impact measurement approaches, facilitate shared learning, and provide a tangible resource for those who are new to the sector or seeking to improve practice."