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Outcomes Based Commissioning (OBC) – for example, Pay for Success (in the US) or Payment by Results (in the UK) – has been suggested as a way to provide 'more' social services for 'less' public resources. Such commissioning is often linked with an innovative financing tool called a Social Impact Bond (SIB). Using data from the Social Finance UK Database and focusing on SIBs in the US and UK, we evaluate whether the SIB approach aligns with the theoretical predictions of social innovation. The results provide limited evidence that SIBs facilitate capital injections from the private sector into the production of social goods as well as facilitate parts of the process of social innovation – namely, piloting and scaling. We conclude that there is significant variation, both between the US and UK and within the US, in social innovation ecosystems and the role played by SIBs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Over the last decade in the United States (US), the burden of chronic disease, health care costs, and fragmented care delivery have increased at alarming rates. To address these challenges, policymakers have prioritized new payment and delivery models to incentivize better integrated health and social services. Policy practice: This paper outlines three major national and state policy initiatives to improve integrated health and social care over the last ten years in the US, with a focus on the Medicaid public insurance program for Americans with low incomes. Activities supported by these initiatives include screening patients for social risks in primary care clinics; building new cross-sector collaborations; financing social care with healthcare dollars; and sharing data across health, social and community services. Stakeholders from the private sector, including health systems and insurers, have partnered to advance and scale these initiatives. This paper describes the implementation and effectiveness of such efforts, and lessons learned from translating policy to practice. Discussion and Conclusion: National policies have catalyzed initiatives to test new integrated health and social care models, with the ultimate goal of improving population health and decreasing costs. Preliminary findings demonstrated the need for validated measures of social risk, engagement across levels of organizational leadership and frontline staff, and greater flexibility from national policymakers in order to align incentives across sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article examines whether the social impact bonds (SIB) as an innovative investment strategy can be effective community economic development (CED). Topics discussed include features of SIB, how it works and why it is gaining traction, the U.S. federal government's support for SIBs, role of state and local governments with SIB, a case study of Pay-For-Success Contract Authorization Act of 2014 and the importance of SIBs in social programs under the administration of President Donald Trump.

Low- and moderate-income tax filers often receive refund and tax credit checks that easily total a fifth or more of their total annual income. This study uses data collected in 2009 and 2010 from 79 clients of a volunteer income tax assistance (VITA) program to compare filers’ estimates of their returns before the tax preparation process with their returns calculated by trained VITA volunteers. Most filers (75%) underestimated their refunds, and 52% underestimated by $500 or more. Hence, at least some portion of the refund arrives as an unanticipated windfall. Counseling and planning work with low- and moderate-income families should take these significant lump sum income events into consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2014, two major global threats-the Ebola outbreak in West Africa and the Islamic State (IS) in the Middle East-caused serious concern within the Obama Administration and among Members of Congress. In November 2014, the President requested a total of $11.7 billion for responding to the Ebola crisis and combatting the Islamic State. On November 5, 2014, the President requested $6.18 billion in FY2015 emergency appropriations for Health and Human Services (HHS), the Department of State and international assistance programs, and DOD to address the Ebola crisis domestically and overseas. The funding would enhance domestic preparedness and support overseas operations to end the current epidemic and prevent the spread of Ebola and other infectious diseases. The request included $2.43 billion for Health and Human Services, $2.10 billion for the Department of State and International Programs, and $112 million for the Department of Defense to advance research and technologies to control Ebola and other infectious diseases. Appropriations requested for a new Contingency Fund (not Overseas Contingency Operations-OCO) totaling $1.54 billion under HHS and Department of State accounts were accompanied by a request for the authority to transfer these funds to any federal agency to help meet Ebola or other infectious disease-related critical needs that may suddenly arise, both domestically and overseas. In addition to the new Contingency Fund, the request also sought transfer authority for the emergency appropriations to any other federal accounts to meet the purposes specified in the request. The Administration asserted that these authorities are necessary for flexibility and a whole-of-government approach to this crisis. On November 10, 2014, the President submitted to Congress an amended FY2015 OCO request for an additional $5.5 billion to combat IS-nearly $5 billion for DOD and $520 million for the Department of State. This brought the FY2015 OCO request to a total of $71.4 billion. DOD's amended OCO funding request of $4.94 billion for FY2015 was for incremental U.S. military personnel expenses; fuel, supplies, and repair costs for ground, air, and sea-based operations, as well as other support; command, control, and intelligence activities, and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, and classified activities; replacement of expended munitions; building the capacity of Iraqi security forces and Kurdish and tribal forces; providing support to coalition members; and other small-scale humanitarian relief and reconstruction activities. In addition, DOD's earlier OCO request included an allocation of $500 million to train Syrian opposition forces to combat ISIS. The Department of State's amended OCO request of $520 million was for expanding the Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications' messaging in key languages; helping the moderate Syrian opposition develop capacity and credibility; supporting Jordan and Lebanon's territory and borders; humanitarian support related to IS attacks in Syria and Iraq; and expanding U.S. international broadcasting to provide a platform for moderate Muslims to voice opposition to extremism. Both the Ebola and IS requests designated budget authority as either an emergency requirement or Overseas Contingency Operations/Global War on Terrorism (OCO/GWOT). Funds designated in this manner would effectively not be subject to the discretionary spending limits established by the Budget Control Act, 2011, as amended (P.L. 112-25), and could, therefore, increase the deficit. The conference version of the Consolidated and Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015 (P.L. 113-235), approved the DOD Ebola request and the $5.4 billion requested to combat the Islamic State plus an unspecified increase in Department of State OCO funds that is available to counter IS. The DOD total included $1. 6 billion requested for a new Iraq train-and-equip account and $500 million to train vetted Syrian opposition forces, the more controversial elements. The FY2015 National Defense Authorization Act (P.L. 113-291/H.R. 3797), signed into law on December 19, 2014, reduced the amount and limited the authorities in a new Counterterrorism Response Partnership Fund (CTPF) that could include funds to train Syrian opposition forces, as well as other partnerships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strategic decision making and evaluation in philanthropic giving and social investment requires good-quality information about the social impacts of that investment. One way to meet this need is by calculating a social return on investment ( SROI) measure, akin to the return on investment ( ROI) approach used in business analysis. Despite much buzz in the field, SROI measurements are rarely used, in part because of the complexity of the calculations but also because of a number of thorny and often expensive organizational challenges associated with implementing an SROI process. This article explores these implementation challenges by comparing four social venture organizations in the health care field-two in the Netherlands and two in the United States-that have utilized some sort of SROI measurement. We summarize the SROI process and identify the specific organizational challenges in each case. Lessons learned from this analysis include the value of process versus product and the importance of fitting the type of measurement to the organizational context. We conclude with a summary of best practices for organizations and social investors who might try to make effective use of SROI measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes findings from a research survey that measured agreement with items that concerned financial morality. The authors analyzed the responses of 382 teacher education majors and finance majors at a Midwestern institution of higher learning in the USA. The study found highest agreement with items measuring business responsibilities, and lowest agreement with items related to wealth distribution. It noted significant differences and varying effect sizes among education and finance majors' interpretation of items concerning business responsibility and wealth distribution. The authors recommend additional research to interpret the concept of financial morality and provide suggestions for related study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It's fun to pass judgment on waste, size, usefulness, complexity, and excessive compensation. But as economists, we have an analytical structure for thinking about these questions. 'I don't understand it' doesn't mean 'it's bad,' or 'regulation will improve it.' That attitude pervades policy analysis in general and financial regulation in particular, and economists do the world a disservice if we echo it. I will not offer a competing black box [to explain the size of the finance industry]. I don't claim to estimate the socially optimal 'size of finance' at, say, 8.267 percent of GDP. It's just the wrong question. Hayek and the failure of planning should teach us a little modesty: Pronouncing on socially optimal industry size is a waste of time. Is the finance industry functioning well? Are there identifiable market or government distortions? Will proposed regulations help or make matters worse? These are useful questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the ethnographies of finance. Sociologists Donald MacKenzie and Yuval Millo are among those working to identify the cultural forms and social structures that characterize finance, with their work focusing on the history of the Chicago Board Options Exchange, a key financial derivatives market. Anthropologist Arjun Appadurai's work aims to decipher the cultural dispositions that resulted in the financial crises in the U.S.

This paper evaluates how changes in economic market and policy conditions, including the establishment of a per-unit tax on unabated emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) set equal to estimates of the social cost of carbon (SCC), influence the economics of carbon capture and storage (CCS) for two hypothetical power generation facilities located in the United States. Data are provided from modified versions of models and resources created and managed by the National Energy Technology Laboratory. Changes in economic market and policy conditions are evaluated over a series of scenarios in which differences in the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) provide estimates of the financial gap necessary to overcome for CCS to be considered the cost-minimizing choice for each power generation facility type considered. Results suggest that for the coal and natural gas power generation facilities considered, a per-unit tax set equal to an SCC exceeding $123 per metric ton of CO2 (/tCO2) emitted (2018 dollars) and $167/tCO2 emitted, respectively, in combination with current Section 45Q tax credits, yields investment in CCS as the cost-minimizing choice; SCC values as low as $58/tCO2 and $98/tCO2 can make CCS the cost-minimizing choice with additional support policies (e.g., free transportation and storage options). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In September of 2014, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) convened a global Rockefeller Bellagio Center workshop focusing on the largely overlooked area of investment in nursing and midwifery enterprise as a means for both empowering women and strengthening health systems and services. The report of this meeting, Empowering Women and Strengthening Health Systems and Services Through Investing in Nursing and Midwifery Enterprise: Lessons from Lower-Income Countries: Workshop Summary, was released in February, 2015. This report represents a pivotal point in a growing body of work begun in 2012, providing insights and perspectives of global experts that have resulted in subsequent global discussions and are paving the way for the future. This three-part article summarizes the initial exploration leading to the IOM workshop and report, followed by highlights and insights from the report and related meetings, and authors concluding discussion of implications for the future and next steps., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Focuses on the meanings of money in the United States. Difference on the attitude towards money between Brazil and the United States; Recollection of opening a bank account in the US; Enumeration of the documents seen as a metaphor in the society.