Why is impact measurement abandoned in practice? Evidence use in evaluation and contracting for five European social impact bonds
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Author (Corporation)
Publication date
2023
Type of student thesis
Course of study
Type
01A - Journal article
Editors
Editor (Corporation)
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Parent work
Evaluation
Special issue
DOI of the original publication
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Series
Series number
Volume
29
Issue / Number
1
Pages / Duration
91-109
Patent number
Publisher / Publishing institution
SAGE
Place of publication / Event location
Edition
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Abstract
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.
Keywords
Active labor market program, Impact, Social Impact Bonds
Event
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ISBN
ISSN
1356-3890
1461-7153
1461-7153
Language
English
Created during FHNW affiliation
No
Strategic action fields FHNW
Publication status
Published
Review
Peer review of the complete publication
Open access category
Hybrid
License
Citation
Hevenstone, D., Fraser, A., Schlittler, L., & Geuke, G. (2023). Why is impact measurement abandoned in practice? Evidence use in evaluation and contracting for five European social impact bonds. Evaluation, 29(1), 91–109. https://doi.org/10.1177/13563890221136890