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Finance and Agenda 2030: Building Momentum for Systemic Change—A Special Issue Coordinated by the Sustainable Finance Group of SDSN France

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2021) | Viewed by 25061

Special Issue Editor

Sustainable Finance coordinator, SDSN France, KEDGE Business School, Domaine de Luminy, BP 921, Marseille 13228, France

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Finance is the brain of the economy. The Agenda 2030 thus implies a rapid readjustment of mainstream models, practices, and regulations. The SDSN France network, through its sustainable finance track, seeks to initiate a process of systemic change by establishing an open and global dialogue between sustainable finance scholars, educators, and practitioners. What is ultimately at stake is the realignment of the behavior of financial actors and the structure of financial institutions with societal and environmental needs. This will require us to replace the 1970s neoclassical model—and its core assumptions of methodological individualism, efficient markets, and shareholder value maximization—with a more diverse approach suited to the systemic challenges of the 21st century.

The proposed special issue will gather a set of reflexive, theoretical, and applied contributions drawing from a wide array of epistemological, methodological, and disciplinary perspectives. The editors are looking for groundbreaking papers that question the hidden assumptions of academic finance from the perspective of sustainability, develop new concepts and tools for socially and environmentally sustainable financial practices, and carve out proposals for reforming the international monetary and financial system in order to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs). The selected contributions will provide a fresh gaze at finance and help steer the reforms to the teaching, practice, and regulation of finance currently under way as part of the Agenda 2030 strategy.

The content of the special issue will be widely disseminated to high-level global leaders and policy-makers via the global SDSN network. Themes of interest include—but are not limited to—the following:

  • Agenda 2030 and the reform of accounting systems
  • Beyond positivism: new epistemological perspectives in finance
  • Corporate governance: measuring and publicizing negative SDG impact
  • Economic diversity, finance, and sustainability
  • Ethics, values, and sustainable finance
  • Field studies on social entrepreneurship, innovation, and SDG impact
  • Finance, sustainability, and the ‘commons’
  • Identifying and involving stakeholders in SDG assessment
  • Impact materiality, ESG performance, and the SDGs
  • Innovation in risk management, green metrics, and sustainability
  • Integrating environmental and climate data in finance research
  • Modern Money Theory and sustainability
  • Monetary policy, Central Banking, and sustainability
  • Monitoring transition in finance: from the micro to the macro level and back
  • New financing tools for the Agenda 2030
  • Pedagogy: bringing the sustainable finance paradigm to the classroom
  • Perspectives from the Global South on sustainable finance
  • SDGs and firm governance: from greenwashing to systemic accountability
  • SDGs, finance, and information technologies
  • Social studies of finance: interdisciplinary insights on sustainable finance
  • Steering finance towards sustainability: the role of development banks
  • The failure of the modern finance paradigm: causes, explanations, and remedies
  • The impact of international and domestic regulation on SDG performance
  • The potential of complementary currencies in reaching the SDGs
  • The role of intangible assets in attaining the SDGs

Prof. Dr. Thomas Lagoarde-Segot
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1700 CHF (Swiss Francs). In addition to Swiss Francs (CHF), the journal also accepts payment in Euros (EUR), US Dollars (USD) or British Pound Sterling (GBP). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

All the manuscripts published in this Special Issue will benefit from a 15% discount. Every author is entitled to discounts of up to 100 CHF for each review they perform. The IOAP program (https://0-www-mdpi-com.brum.beds.ac.uk/about/ioap) also provides between a 10% to a 25% discount to authors whose affiliation is enlisted in the program. SDSN France will also provide some financial support to cover a fraction of Article Proceeding Charges. Contact Prof. Dr. Lagoarde Segot Thomas for more information.

Keywords

  • Agenda 2030
  • Sustainable Development Goals
  • Sustainable development
  • Financial economics
  • Risk management
  • International money and finance
  • Critical management studies

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

28 pages, 407 KiB  
Article
Sustainable Financial Risk Modelling Fitting the SDGs: Some Reflections
by Christian Walter
Sustainability 2020, 12(18), 7789; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12187789 - 21 Sep 2020
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 5517
Abstract
This article argues that any ecological finance theory devised to fit the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) needs a paradigm shift in the morphology of randomness underlying financial risk modelling, by integrating the characteristics of “nature” and sustainability into the modelling carried out. It [...] Read more.
This article argues that any ecological finance theory devised to fit the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) needs a paradigm shift in the morphology of randomness underlying financial risk modelling, by integrating the characteristics of “nature” and sustainability into the modelling carried out. It extends the common diagnosis of the 2008 financial crisis with considerations on the morphology of randomness and the reasons why neoclassical finance theory is not sustainable from this perspective. It argues that the main problem with unsustainable neoclassical finance risk modelling is its underlying morphology of randomness that creates a dangerous risk culture. It presents Leibniz’s principle of continuity and Quetelet’s theory of average as cornerstones of classical risk culture in finance, acting as a mental model for financial experts and practitioners. It links the notion of sustainability with the morphology of randomness and presents a possible alternative approach to financial risk modelling defined by rough randomness. If morphology of randomness in nature is properly described by fractal and multifractal methods, hence ecological finance theory has to include fractal properties into financial risk models. The conclusion proposes a new agenda for future research. Full article
22 pages, 1225 KiB  
Article
Sustainable Financial Partnerships for the SDGs: The Case of Social Impact Bonds
by Alessandro Rizzello and Abdellah Kabli
Sustainability 2020, 12(13), 5362; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12135362 - 02 Jul 2020
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 6041
Abstract
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development brought the critical challenge of how private capital can support its new goals—the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—to the attention of finance, business and policy actors. Impact finance instruments, which aim to obtain both financial and positive social/environmental [...] Read more.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development brought the critical challenge of how private capital can support its new goals—the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—to the attention of finance, business and policy actors. Impact finance instruments, which aim to obtain both financial and positive social/environmental returns simultaneously, can serve as effective institutional mechanisms to support the financing of SDGs. Social impact bonds (SIBs) are part of this emerging field. SIBs represent multi-stakeholder partnerships, built on outcome-based contracts, designed to harness private impact-oriented investors, service providers and public entities to address social or environmental problems. SDG 17 considers partnerships priority instruments for the achievement of SDs targets. This paper provides an exploratory analysis into the field of Social Impact Bonds and aims to (i) understand how such instruments are suitable for involving sustainable economy actors in SDG-based partnerships; (ii) determine the interplay between SIBs and SDGs. In order to address these questions, the article presents a multiple case study that includes a cross case analysis of four SIBs experienced in different social policy areas and different countries. As secondary step, the study matches phases and activities of SDG-based financial partnerships derived from a literature review with those experienced by each SIB case study. The results show that SIBs are fully compliant with SDG-based financial partnership structures derived from the literature, and their architecture reveals a high degree of SDG investment readiness. The originality of the research consists of including SIBs in the analysis of the new financial tools for the achievement of the SDGs, and extending them into the field of partnerships for the Goals, at the center of SDG 17. The paper fills the significant gap in the current research related to the issues of financing sustainable development and financial sector instruments on sustainability. Full article
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34 pages, 560 KiB  
Article
Social Uncertainty Evaluation of Social Impact Bonds: A Model and Practical Application
by Francesco Rania, Annarita Trotta, Rosella Carè, Maria Cristina Migliazza and Abdellah Kabli
Sustainability 2020, 12(9), 3854; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12093854 - 08 May 2020
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 4971
Abstract
In the last years, Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) have gained popularity in the impact investing space. A number of scholars and practitioners are debating—in theory and practice—the opportunities, challenges and obstacles of these financial models. Amongst others, social uncertainty evaluation metrics appear as [...] Read more.
In the last years, Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) have gained popularity in the impact investing space. A number of scholars and practitioners are debating—in theory and practice—the opportunities, challenges and obstacles of these financial models. Amongst others, social uncertainty evaluation metrics appear as a critical factor for the future development of the SIB market. The present work aims to shed some light on this issue, by realizing a practical application of a model—which is an extension of a framework previously proposed—for social uncertainty evaluation in SIBs. In our exploratory analysis, 34 SIBs were selected for the empirical tests. We combined the Analytic Hierarchical Process (AHP) with the creation of aggregate measure, deriving by suitable indicators at the end of the tree. Our findings open new avenues for future research in the field of uncertainty factors in the SIB landscape. Finally, our results represent a basis for implementing a prediction model for social uncertainty evaluation. Full article
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22 pages, 1170 KiB  
Article
Financing the Sustainable Development Goals
by Thomas Lagoarde-Segot
Sustainability 2020, 12(7), 2775; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12072775 - 01 Apr 2020
Cited by 37 | Viewed by 7838
Abstract
This paper contends that carving out pathways to finance the sustainable development goal (SDG) agenda entails to reconsider tacit assumptions regarding the functioning of financial systems. We first use a history of economic thought perspective to demonstrate the flaws of the loanable fund [...] Read more.
This paper contends that carving out pathways to finance the sustainable development goal (SDG) agenda entails to reconsider tacit assumptions regarding the functioning of financial systems. We first use a history of economic thought perspective to demonstrate the flaws of the loanable fund theory, which has come to underlie SDG finance strategies. We then introduce the alternative endogenous money theory using a consistent theoretical and accounting framework. This allows us to identify and discuss a set of financing mechanisms that would permit to bridge the SDG budget gap. These mechanisms include the issuing of sovereign green bonds, the modification of the European Central Bank’s collateral framework, changes in capital adequacy ratios, a market of SDG lending certificates and the introduction of rediscounting policies. We back up the discussion with examples from economic history. Full article
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