The rise of the impact economy

The rise of the impact economy

Evolving the economy to the next level by recognizing the value of people and the planet

At a glance

People and planet, as well as profit

Trading up to impact economics means recognising the economic value of people and the planet. Our needs include equal opportunity, fair treatment, and an environment that is not collapsing. Impact economics aims to allocate scarce resources to meet all of those needs.

Emerging from the data sludge

The impact economy works when peoples’ needs are properly, transparently measured. This is necessarily more complex than reducing everything to a single statistic like GDP, but must be more simple than the current murky swamp of acronyms and conflicting measures.

Impact economics – an economic evolution

Economics has had one job throughout the ages – to find the best way to allocate scarce resources between people’s endless needs. Over the past eighty years the focus has been output economics, which assumed peoples’ needs were things they could buy. But people’s needs have evolved, so output economics needs to evolve into impact economics.

Videos

Podcast

Listen here:

The impact economy. Fiona Reynolds and Paul Donovan on the shortcomings of GDP

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This is the second if a two-part series exploring the impact economy. Fiona Reynolds, CEO of Conexus Financial, and UBS Global Wealth Management chief economist Paul Donovan discuss the shortcomings of GDP, why we need an impact economy and what needs to happen to bring one about.

The impact economy. Prof. Sir Partha Dasgupta on the economics of biodiversity

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This is the first of a two-part series exploring the impact economy. Sir Partha Dasgupta, Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Cambridge, discusses the interconnectedness of a flourishing natural environment, economic growth and human development. Much of Sir Partha’s celebrated research has covered ecological economics.