Outcomes-based contracting and public management reform: Lessons from a decade of experimentation

Abstract

A decade after the launch of the world’s first social impact bond (SIB) at Her Majesty’s Prison Peterborough in England, a further 250 SIBs have been developed in over 30 countries raising over $750 m (USD) of capital and serving some 1.7 million people. As investment-backed outcomes-based contracts (OBCs), SIBs are one of many outcomes-oriented reforms being taken up globally. In this introduction, we offer a framework for navigating the inchoate landscape of these reforms and a brief review of literature on OBCs and SIBs to frame the articles in this special issue. We then underscore the major contributions of the six included articles before offering summaries of each. In closing, we discuss the article findings and offer avenues for future research.