Tackling the Big Questions in Social Impact Bond Research through Comparative Approaches

Abstract

This special issue of theJournal of Comparative Policy Analysis brings together four cross-disciplinary articles representing the first concerted attempt to combine comparative approaches to extend theoretical and empirical understandings of Social Impact Bonds (SIBs). SIBs are investment-backed payment-by-results projects and have been subject to vigorous academic debate on their appropriateness and efficacy since the first SIB launched in 2010. This introduction to the special issue outlines the state of the academic literature on SIBs, identifying gaps and suggesting five big questions that do not yet have satisfactory answers: (1) What are the administrative or political problems to which SIBs respond? (2) Where and why do SIBs emerge in particular contexts? (3) What is the role of SIBs in the evidence-based policy movement? (4) Is delivering an intervention through a SIB more effective than other means and are associated costs justifiable? (5) Do SIBs catalyse wider organizational, system, or institutional changes? This introduction then summarizes the articles included in this special issue, discusses how they respond to these big questions, and suggests that further comparative research might best address remaining gaps in the literature.     

When are experiments corrupt?

ABSTRACT

Between 2010 and 2011, the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) funded a large-scale experiment on Kenyan schools. The policy experiment tested the effects of cutting teachers’ salaries and hiring them on short-term contracts, but the intervention failed after sustained opposition from teacher unions and parent associations. This article critically revisits the narrative of how this experiment was designed, implemented and interpreted, finding evidence that the experiment violated empirical logic. It examines whether the theory of neopatrimonialism can explain the ways in which vested interests may have undermined the empirical logic of the experiment. By doing so, the analysis tests the explanatory utility of neopatrimonialism, and casts light on the conditions under which policy experiments in Africa may be anti-empirical.     

Impinging blood droplets on different wettable surfaces: Impact phenomena,contact line motion,post-impact oscillation and dried stains

Understanding the underlying hydrodynamics of impinging blood droplets and finding out the physical parameters determining the bloodstain characteristics are of great importance in blood related forensic investigations. In this work, the impact of non-Newtonian blood droplets on solid surfaces ranging from lyophilic to superlyophobic was systematically investigated and compared to that of Newtonian droplets with a similar dynamic shear viscosity. We show that impinging blood droplets behave as low-viscosity Newtonian droplets in the short-time spreading, which is dominated by capillary and inertial forces, but their non-Newtonian viscoelasticity would notably affect the droplet retraction and post-impact oscillation occurring in large timescales. Whereas the strong liquid–solid adhesion and the non-Newtonian elongational viscosity hinder droplet recoiling and thus alter the impact phenomena on lyophobic and superlyophobic surfaces, the shear and elongational viscosities are coupled to result in higher damping coefficients of oscillating blood droplets after deposition, in comparison to that of impinging Newtonian droplets. The size of the dried bloodstain was found to be different from both the maximum spreading radius of the droplet that can reach during impact and the final radius of the deposited droplet after oscillation, and their correlations are highly dependent on the impact velocity and surface wettability. Moreover, the morphologic characteristics of the bloodstains would also be changed by varying either the impact velocity or the surface wettability. We envision that these findings can not only find applications in the bloodstain pattern analysis, but also provide useful information for medical diagnosis based on blood droplet test.     

政府环境治理工作的公众评价：央地差距与结构性制约

近年来,随着环境问题日益受到社会各界的重视,政府在环境治理工作中的表现正成为公众关注的重点。但是,我们对于目前我国政府环境治理工作公众评价的基本情况和影响因素还知之甚少。基于对中国综合社会调查2013年（CGSS2013）数据的分析,我们发现,我国公众对于中央政府环境治理工作的评价显著高于地方政府,包括受教育程度、收入水平、社会经济地位感知、政治身份、城乡差距和地区差距在内的结构性因素制约着公众对于政府环境治理工作的评价。在对研究发现进行深入讨论的基础上,进一步提炼了研究发现在政策意义上的启示。     

Construct validity and internal reliability of the Finnish risk and needs assessment form

Validation of risk and needs assessment instruments used to predict, and reduce, recidivism and misconduct is of ethical, practical and scientific importance. We argue for a focus on variable (i.e. changeable over time) risk factors, and that validation begins with establishing construct validity. The Finnish Risk and Needs Assessment Form, in Finnish Riski- ja tarvearvio (RITA), is a semi-structured interview form adapted from the Offender Assessment System used in England and Wales and consists primarily of variable risk factors. In this study, we examined the construct validity and internal reliability of RITA. The results suggest that the original RITA sections do not provide an adequate statistical model for describing the relationship between scored questions, and we, therefore, offer an improved model. In our proposed model, several scores are influenced by more than one dimension of risk and the dimensions correlate with each other considerably. We suggest that the dimensions that can be measured with RITA are Problems managing economy, Alcohol problems, Resistance to change, Drug abuse and associated behaviour, Aggressiveness and Employment problems. All factors except Drug abuse and associated behaviour had very good internal reliability. We propose this new model to be used in future research with, and in development of, RITA.     

Assessing Risk of Placement Instability to Aid Foster Care Placement Decision Making

Placement stability is of critical importance to the well-being of children in foster care and has an impact on other key outcomes. Placement decision-making that matches children with placement resources is often cited as a practice that impacts placement stability, but little research exists to inform this practice. The focus of this research is on a child assessment tool that was developed to determine the appropriate level of care, which serves as one component of a web-based matching system that pulls together child and placement information used to inform the placement decision. The research examines the relationship between the child assessment subscale domains and placement stability for first and subsequent placement decisions and evaluates the stability of placements made in and outside of the indicated level of care.     

经济发展权与环境权的冲突与协调

随着我国经济的高速发展,环境污染日益严重,许多环境污染事件相继出现,环境与经济发展的问题亟待解决。为此,在法律领域需要认识与协调经济发展权与环境权的对立统一关系。两者的冲突来源于人们对自然环境资源的利益需求的不同,环境权聚焦于环境资源的生态价值,经济发展权聚焦于环境资源的经济价值。协调环境权与经济发展权的基本思路是:在发展中解决环境问题,并通过制度化的途径协调冲突,实现可持续发展。     

具有中国特色的妇女运动实践探索——"双学双比"活动评估报告

":双学双比"作为一个具有中国特色的农村妇女发展活动,已经走过近20年的风雨历程,成为持续时间最长、参与范围最广、涉及部门和人数最多的农村妇女发展项目,积累了丰富经验,产生了深远影响。本报告力图对"双学双比"活动进行评估,科学总结这一活动的特点与成效,客观分析现存的问题和挑战,在此基础上,对"双学双比"活动的可持续发展提出有针对性的对策建议。     

环境权力与权利的重构——论民法与环境法的沟通和协调

市场经济的中国需要符合市场机制的环境法 ,环境权力与环境权利的重构因此而获得了理论与现实的意义 ,环境保护需要政府与市场的共同作用 ,需要将国家环境权力与公民环境权利相结合的环境法律制度 ,需要民法与环境法的沟通和协调     

日本环境产业的发展

环境产业是改善环境和保证经济社会可持续发展的物质技术条件,也是促进日本经济与环境协调发展和激活其地区活力的强大动力.目前,日本的环境产业已从少数产业部门扩展到几乎所有产业部门,未来将同汽车业和建筑业并驾齐驱,成为支撑日本经济发展的主导支柱产业之一.促进日本环境产业发展的主要因素是,强化环境法规的限制,推动经济政策的绿色化,完善企业的环境管理和发展绿色消费.