Why is Impact Measurement Abandoned in Practice? Evidence use in evaluation and contracting for five European Social Impact Bonds

Hevenstone, Debra; Fraser, Alec; Hobi, Lukas Christian; Geuke, Gemma (2022). Why is Impact Measurement Abandoned in Practice? Evidence use in evaluation and contracting for five European Social Impact Bonds Evaluation, 29(1), pp. 91-109. Sage Publications 10.1177/13563890221136890

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Despite broad consensus on the importance of measuring “impact,” the term is not always understood as estimating counterfactual and causal estimates. We examine a type of public sector financing, “Social Impact Bonds,” a scheme where investors front money for public services, with repayment conditional on impact. We examine five cases in four European countries of Social Impact Bonds financing active labor market programs, testing the claim that Social Impact Bonds would move counterfactual causal impact evaluation to the heart of policy. We examine first how evidence was integrated in contracts, second the overall evidence generated and third, given that neither contracts nor evaluations used counterfactual definitions of impact, we explore stakeholders’ perspectives to better understand the reasons why. We find that although most stakeholders wanted the Social Impact Bonds to generate impact estimates, beliefs about public service reform, incentives, and the logic of experimentation led to the acceptance of non-causal definitions.

Item Type:	Journal Article (Original Article)
Division/Institute:	School of Social Work > Institute for Social Security and Social Policy School of Social Work
Name:	Hevenstone, Debra; Fraser, Alec; Hobi, Lukas Christian and Geuke, Gemma
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
ISSN:	1356-3890
Publisher:	Sage Publications
Funders:	[UNSPECIFIED] Swiss Network for International Studies
Projects:	[UNSPECIFIED] New Public Policy Financing Models: Innovative or Ineffective?
Language:	English
Submitter:	Debra Hevenstone
Date Deposited:	06 Mar 2023 15:22
Last Modified:	06 Mar 2023 15:22
Publisher DOI:	10.1177/13563890221136890
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Pay by Results, Impact, Active Labor Market Program, Social Impact Bonds
ARBOR DOI:	10.24451/arbor.18910
URI:	https://arbor.bfh.ch/id/eprint/18910