Abstract

When the social impact bond (SIB) model was first introduced in 2010, there were many claims about how these projects could transform public service delivery. This article investigates how SIB projects have been designed in relation to two original intentions: (1) shifting the focus of public service delivery to achieving impact and (2) transferring risk from the government to external investors. Qualitative content analysis of SIB projects launched until 2020 in the US and UK (n = 114) is used to plot and analyze how the design of SIB projects vary across these intentions. We find that SIB design in practice has deviated from the model’s original intent in several important ways: In the UK, payable outcomes are generally not subject to rigorous validation methods. In both the US and the UK, upfront capital is generally independent and at-risk, but risk mitigation strategies may limit the intended transfer of risk to investors.

摘要

当社会影响力债券 (SIB) 模型于 2010 年首次推出时，有很多关于这些项目如何改变公共服务交付的说法。本文探讨了 SIB 项目是如何设计的，以实现两个初衷：(1) 将公共服务交付的重点转向实现影响；(2) 将风险从政府转移到外部投资者。对 2020 年之前在美国和英国 (n = 114) 启动的 SIB 项目进行定性内容分析，用于绘制和分析 SIB 项目的设计如何随着这些意图而变化。我们发现实践中的 SIB 设计在几个重要方面偏离了模型的初衷： 在英国，应付结果通常不受严格的验证方法的约束。在美国和英国，前期资本通常是独立的且存在风险，