If you are feeling rich and altruistic, you might think about issuing your own Social Policy Bonds. Say you wish to see crime fall in your part of your city. You don't think more policing is either forthcoming or the answer, but you still don't know what the answer is. Rather than accept the situation or moving away, you could issue Crime Reduction Bonds for your area. These bonds would be redeemable for a fixed sum once crime, however you decide to measure it, falls below a threshold for a sustained period.
Essentially, you would be contracting out the achievement of crime reduction to the market. Holders of your bonds would have incentives to look for the most efficient ways of reducing crime. Criminals themselves could buy your bonds and make a profit by seeking alternative forms of distraction. Non-criminals might buy your bonds and do things that are beyond the imagination or experience of police forces: subsidise taxis for young men emerging from pubs; offer adult literacy classes; subsidise marginal types to move away; subsidise employment for youths etc.
You might have other objectives. You could, for example, issues Social Policy Bonds that target pollution in your city, or te water quality of a local river or lake. Or you might want to see better health or education standards in a developing country. As a first step, you could download a handbook (pdf file) I prepared, using the example of literacy amongst schoolchildren in Pakistan. Feel free to get in touch directly with me (via the Comments, below, or through email link given in my Profile), if you would like to take it further.
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