Social Impact Bonds as a financial innovation – an evolutionary approach

By the end of July, 2017, final reviews of the Peterborough SIB, issued by several persons and institutions involved, declared this pilot SIB project a success which should spur future SIB activities. Against this backdrop, we examine Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) with respect to typical structures of this financial innovation, its delimitation from comparable financial products, and early market development. Furthermore, an evolutionary economic analysis of SIBs is conducted in order to explain the different market stages, conditions and patterns of SIBs in various countries. Analyzing the respective institutional change, we identify various drivers of SIBs’ evolution so far.