Possibilities of Social Bonds Using to Finance Higher Education Institutions

In many countries, funding for higher education institutions is insufficient and requires the search for new financial instruments and financing models. One such financing model could be the issuance of social impact bonds aimed at improving the efficiency of higher education institutions. The study focuses on the use of financial instruments as social bonds for additional funding of higher education institutions. The peculiarities of social bonds and the possibilities of their application in the field of higher education are explored in the paper. The results of the study comprise three proposed innovative approaches to the development of a mechanism for the issuance of bonds. The first approach assumes that the issuer of social bonds in favour of the university is a bank or other financial institution. The second approach is based on the methodology of issuing social bonds by a university with the participation of the state. The third approach to the use of social bonds is the creation of a platform for financing long-term educational programs; it can be done with the participation of a large company implementing large-scale socio-economic projects. Such platform will have a great social and economic effect.

Evaluation in Impact Investing

The emergence of impact investing over the past decade has been accompanied by an increased interest of practitioners and scholars in the impact evaluation topic, one of the twofold pillars of the such an innovative financial approach. To contribute to the international debate, this study adopts a qualitative approach by obtaining results from a systematic literature review of extant research. This is useful to 1) identify the current existing impact evaluation approaches adopted in the field and 2) derive an empirical analysis in the impact investing sector with a focus on impact measurement in social impact bonds. The study opens interesting insights into recognizing the potential for the whole impact investing field, deriving both from theory and evidence of impact evaluation practices.

Social impact bonds: Financing grassroots sports

This paper aims to analyze the foreign experience of using social impact bonds (SIB) and formulate proposals for the application of this tool in financing projects aimed at developing mass sports and increasing physical activity on a national scale. The scientific novelty of the article is confirmed by the limited application of such a mechanism in Russia and its insufficient study. This research aims to fill this academic and applied gap. The author uses the methods of deconstruction and aspect analysis. The article analyzes in detail the foreign experience of using social impact bonds, reveals the advantages and disadvantages of this model. In the absence of SIB sports projects, the model of social impact bonds is considered through the example of a New York City-based program aimed at reducing the recidivism rate among young people. This example allowed the author to describe the interaction scheme for all participants and stakeholders and to illustrate related advantages and disadvantages. In the future, this model can be introduced into Russian practice and used as a model for launching a similar project in the field of grassroots sports. The analysis of successful projects implemented abroad allowed the author to substantiate the possibility of using social impact bonds in financing programs aimed at increasing population levels of physical activity. A system of target indicators is proposed, including such a metric as social return on investment (SROI). The author describes in detail the methodology for calculating SROI and provides examples of calculating this indicator for mass sports projects. The author concludes that the advantages of SIB prevail over the disadvantages and about the high potential of this tool. Further research in this area can be aimed at clarifying the methodology for calculating the SROI for sport interventions promoting physical activity at the population level and evaluating specific projects in the field.

“Let’s Not Have the Perfect Be the Enemy of the Good”: Social Impact Bonds, Randomized Controlled Trials, and the Valuation of Social Programs

This article uses the case of “social impact bonds” (SIBs) to explore the role of social science methods in new markets in “social investment.” Pioneered in the UK in 2010, SIBs use private capital to fund social programs with governments paying returns for successful outcomes. Central to the SIB model is the question of evaluation and the method to be used in determining program outcomes and investor returns. In the United States, the randomized controlled trial (RCT) has been the dominant method. However, this has not been without controversy. Some SIB practitioners and investors have argued that, while this may be the perfect tool, the need to grow the SIB market demands a more pragmatic approach. Drawing from a three-year study of SIBs, and informed by Science and Technology Studies (STS)-inspired work on valuation and the social life of methods, the article explores RCTs as both a valuation technology central to SIB design and the object of a micropolitics of valuation which has impeded market growth. It is the relationship between, and the politics of, evaluation and valuation that is a key lesson of the SIB experiment and an important insight for future research on “social investment” and other settings where methods are constitutive of financial value.