Finance & accounting

Impact bonds are outcomes-based contracts that catalyse funding from “risk investors” to cover upfront working capital to deliver services. To improve the quality of education available for children in India, a goal aligned with the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals, the Quality Education India Development Impact Bond was formed.

Recently, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation — best known by its initials, FDIC — took over two banks a country apart after customers ran to get their money out in fear of their imminent closure. What happened, why and what’s next, both short-term and long-term?

No matter how one refers to it — “ESG” (environmental, social and governance), “responsible” or “sustainable” investing — the world is paying increased attention to investment decisions that include nonfinancial factors. Research examines if investment managers invest their clients’ capital as responsibly as they pledge to.

SAMRIDH Healthcare Blended Finance Facility improves access to affordable and quality health care for the most socioeconomically vulnerable in India. It leverages philanthropic funding to mitigate barriers for private investment and drive greater commercial investments toward health system strengthening and is a leading public-private partnership.

Since 2000, the U.S. has experienced a decline in the number of publicly traded companies, a trend that comes with significant economic risks and implications. Proponents of deregulation cite increased disclosure and regulatory burdens placed on public companies as the cause. Is that indeed the case? Award-winning research examines the issue.

Professor Shane Dikolli has used analytical modeling and empirical analysis to evaluate CEOs for much of his career, and he and the Batten Institute’s Sean Carr discuss why the insights hidden in plain sight within accounting disclosures have important implications for business managers at every level.

A new leader can turn around a failing organization — or drive it further into the ground. Strategy, leadership and success are intertwined phenomena, and accounting controls can make all the difference. This Case in Point examines a new pastor in a low-income community, confident he could turn around a small church — and the following controversy.

The Cambodia Rural Sanitation Development Impact Bond combines private and public capital with on-the-ground implementation expertise and market-based solutions to improve health and accelerate the Royal Government of Cambodia’s goal of universal sanitation. A finalist for the P3 Impact Award, it’s a public-private partnership changing the world.

The value of a culture of integrity: Using linguistic analysis of public communications, researchers studied which CEOs are likely to mislead investors and fail to follow through on promises. The CEO behavioral integrity index provides systematic evidence of the consequences of low integrity — here’s what it means for auditors and the bottom line.

Conventional wisdom is that active-fund managers are paid to be contrarians; they take risks and go against trends. But new research shows that sometimes they’re the herd: In the bear market of February and March 2020, institutional investors amplified price crashes and volatility by fire-selling, and they focused on cash rather than ESG metrics.