Social Policy Bonds blog: Anything except outcomes

10 October 2009

Anything except outcomes

The Nobel Peace Prize committee has been awarded to US President Barack Obama "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." That is, for efforts, rather than achievements. Or perhaps it's for hope? Or for who the President is, rather than what he's done? This sort of nonsense is one reason why we are in such dire trouble. We reward anything - activity, image, inputs, outputs, victimhood - anything ... except outcomes.

All institutions have as their over-riding goal that of self-perpetuation. If the Nobel people were really concerned with peace, they'd reward one of the thousands of dedicated people working selflessly and successfully in dangerous areas trying to prevent or defuse conflict. But they are more concerned about raising the profile of their committee and their lucrative, ludicrous prizes. Is there any field of public life immune from celebrity worship?

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Social Policy Bonds in the media

13 June 2018: my short article Make Social Impact Bonds Tradeable, appears on the website of Alliance, a magazine for philanthropy and social investment.

25 May 2018: a short article on Social Policy Bonds and their possible application in India, appears on Market Express (India). It is by Dr Ashok V Desai and titled Incentivizing welfare.

9 October 2015: An article by Greg Bearup on the genesis of the Social Policy Bond idea, and application of a version of it in Australia appears in the Weekend Australian Magazine. (The article can also be downloaded as a pdf from here.)

October 2013: Professor Robert Shiller of Yale University, is named as one of the three winners of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Economics. His Nobel Prize lecture (pdf) delivered on 8 December, mentions Social Policy Bonds. Professor Shiller has for many years encouraged my work on Social Policy Bonds, beginning in late 1996 when he sent me this letter.

3 May 2012: An audio talk by Nobel Prize winner Professor Robert Shiller at the London School of Economics, in which Social Policy Bonds are briefly mentioned, is available here.

18 April 2012: Robert Shiller, Professor of Economics at Yale University, mentions Social Policy Bonds in his new book Finance and the Good Society. He also mentions the concept in a Huffington Post article. It's the eighth of his Ten Ways Finance Can Be a Force for Good in Society, and is also mentioned in a short profile piece about Professor Shiller.