IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/diedps/292021.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

What is social finance? Definitions by market participants, the EU taxonomy for sustainable activities, and implications for development policy

Author

Listed:
  • Hilbrich, Sören

Abstract

The market for social financial instruments is rapidly growing. The issuance of social bonds, for instance, reached $149.4 billion in 2020, showing an extraordinary growth of 720% compared to 2019 (ADB, 2021, p. 14). By providing capital for certain types of investments associated with positive social impacts, these instruments are intended to close funding gaps that hamper the realisation of social goals, as laid down, for instance, in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In addition, social finance might set incentives for enterprises to engage in more sustainable business models that would give them access to social financial instruments potentially associated with a lower cost of capital. However, the magnitude of the potential contribution to society of social finance is a matter of debate. This paper focuses on an important challenge for social finance that concerns the plurality of existing definitions of social investments. The paper provides an overview of the definitions followed by market participants, describes the EU taxonomy for sustainable activities as a potential standard in this context, and discusses implications for development policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Hilbrich, Sören, 2021. "What is social finance? Definitions by market participants, the EU taxonomy for sustainable activities, and implications for development policy," IDOS Discussion Papers 29/2021, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:diedps:292021
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/247789/1/1780468172.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Josué Banga, 2019. "The green bond market: a potential source of climate finance for developing countries," Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(1), pages 17-32, January.
    2. Hanna Hilbrandt & Monika Grubbauer, 2020. "Standards and SSOs in the contested widening and deepening of financial markets: The arrival of Green Municipal Bonds in Mexico City," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(7), pages 1415-1433, October.
    3. Berensmann, Kathrin, 2017. "Upscaling green bond markets: the need for harmonised green bond standards," Briefing Papers 12/2017, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    4. Luluk Widyawati, 2020. "A systematic literature review of socially responsible investment and environmental social governance metrics," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 619-637, February.
    5. Aaron Maltais & Björn Nykvist, 2021. "Understanding the role of green bonds in advancing sustainability," Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(3), pages 233-252, July.
    6. Sarah Bracking, 2015. "Performativity in the Green Economy: how far does climate finance create a fictive economy?," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(12), pages 2337-2357, December.
    7. Marco Migliorelli, 2021. "What Do We Mean by Sustainable Finance? Assessing Existing Frameworks and Policy Risks," Post-Print hal-03476960, HAL.
    8. Daniel Cash, 2018. "Sustainable finance ratings as the latest symptom of ‘rating addiction’," Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(3), pages 242-258, July.
    9. Kristin Ulrike Löffler & Aleksandar Petreski & Andreas Stephan, 2021. "Drivers of green bond issuance and new evidence on the “greenium”," Eurasian Economic Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 11(1), pages 1-24, March.
    10. Stephen Fowler & C. Hope, 2007. "A Critical Review of Sustainable Business Indices and their Impact," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 76(3), pages 243-252, December.
    11. Jason Thistlethwaite, 2014. "Private governance and sustainable finance," Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(1), pages 61-75, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hernandez, Ariel, 2021. "SDG-aligned futures and the governance of the transformation to sustainability reconsidering governance perspectives on the futures we aspire to," IDOS Discussion Papers 30/2021, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pham, Linh & Nguyen, Canh Phuc, 2021. "Asymmetric tail dependence between green bonds and other asset classes," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    2. Anamaria Dan & Adriana Tiron-Tudor, 2021. "The Determinants of Green Bond Issuance in the European Union," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-14, September.
    3. Miklesh Yadav & Nandita Mishra & Shruti Ashok, 2023. "Dynamic connectedness of green bond with financial markets of European countries under OECD economies," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 56(1), pages 609-631, February.
    4. Yoshihiro Zenno & Kentaka Aruga, 2022. "Institutional Investors’ Willingness to Pay for Green Bonds: A Case for Shanghai," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-16, November.
    5. Alice Martini, 2019. "Socially responsible investing: from the ethical origins to the sustainable development framework of the european union," Public Finance Research Papers 36, Istituto di Economia e Finanza, DSGE, Sapienza University of Rome.
    6. Felipe Arias Fogliano de Souza Cunha & Carlos Samanez, 2013. "Performance Analysis of Sustainable Investments in the Brazilian Stock Market: A Study About the Corporate Sustainability Index (ISE)," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 117(1), pages 19-36, September.
    7. Husain, Shaiara & Sohag, Kazi & Wu, Yanrui, 2022. "The response of green energy and technology investment to climate policy uncertainty: An application of twin transitions strategy," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    8. Riikka Sievänen & Hannu Rita & Bert Scholtens, 2017. "European Pension Funds and Sustainable Development: Trade‐Offs between Finance and Responsibility," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(7), pages 912-926, November.
    9. M. Tina Dacin & Jeffrey S. Harrison & David Hess & Sheila Killian & Julia Roloff, 2022. "Business Versus Ethics? Thoughts on the Future of Business Ethics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 180(3), pages 863-877, October.
    10. Olaf Weber & Rezaul Karim Chowdury, 2020. "Corporate Sustainability in Bangladeshi Banks: Proactive or Reactive Ethical Behavior?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-18, September.
    11. Vanita Tripathi & Amanpreet Kaur, 2022. "Does Socially Responsible Investing Pay in Developing Countries? A Comparative Study Across Select Developed and Developing Markets," FIIB Business Review, , vol. 11(2), pages 189-205, June.
    12. Hanna Hilbrandt & Monika Grubbauer, 2020. "Standards and SSOs in the contested widening and deepening of financial markets: The arrival of Green Municipal Bonds in Mexico City," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(7), pages 1415-1433, October.
    13. Oberndorfer, Ulrich & Schmidt, Peter & Wagner, Marcus & Ziegler, Andreas, 2013. "Does the stock market value the inclusion in a sustainability stock index? An event study analysis for German firms," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 66(3), pages 497-509.
    14. Ren, Xiaohang & Li, Yiying & yan, Cheng & Wen, Fenghua & Lu, Zudi, 2022. "The interrelationship between the carbon market and the green bonds market: Evidence from wavelet quantile-on-quantile method," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    15. Omneya Abdelsalam & Meryem Duygun & Juan Carlos Matallín-Sáez & Emili Tortosa-Ausina, 2014. "Is Ethical Money Sensitive to Past Returns? The Case of Portfolio Constraints and Persistence of Islamic and Socially Responsible Funds," Working Papers 2014/19, Economics Department, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón (Spain).
    16. Dorfleitner, Gregor & Muck, Franziska & Scheckenbach, Isabel, 2021. "Blockchain applications for climate protection: A global empirical investigation," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    17. Fouad Ben Abdelaziz & Cinzia Colapinto & Davide La Torre & Danilo Liuzzi, 2020. "A stochastic dynamic multiobjective model for sustainable decision making," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 293(2), pages 539-556, October.
    18. Pauline Deschryver & Frederic de Mariz, 2020. "What Future for the Green Bond Market? How Can Policymakers, Companies, and Investors Unlock the Potential of the Green Bond Market?," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-26, March.
    19. Samer Ajour El Zein & Carolina Consolacion-Segura & Ruben Huertas-Garcia, 2019. "The Role of Sustainability in Brand Equity Value in the Financial Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-19, December.
    20. Sara De Masi & Agnieszka Słomka‐Gołębiowska & Claudio Becagli & Andrea Paci, 2021. "Toward sustainable corporate behavior: The effect of the critical mass of female directors on environmental, social, and governance disclosure," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 1865-1878, May.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:diedps:292021. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: . General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ditubde.html .

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ditubde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.