Social Policy Bonds

Market Solutions for Social and Environmental Problems: Social Policy Bonds is my latest full-length treatment of the Social Policy Bond concept. About an earlier version reviewers said:

“This is a must-read for anyone interested in the potential of financial markets for meeting social goals - if there is a common ground where Socialism, Environmentalism and Market Capitalism can meet, this book contains the recipe for finding it."

"...a unique, clever, and thought-provoking book. At first, the central idea of the book seems downright zany - using market forces, in the form of government-issued bonds, to harness creative self-interest to solve social problems like crime or unemployment. However, Horesh argues his case in a clear and compelling manner and I was left wondering - can it work? I would certainly like to see our governments take up the challenge...."

This book is currently available only from here, either as a hard copy or, for half the price as an ebook. The book is about 72000 words in length (77000 words including citations). While it would help me if you purchase the book or ebook, if you are sincerely interested in the Social Policy Bonds concept and cannot afford to pay for it, you can download the entire text as a pdf free of charge by clicking here. (You can always purchase the book or ebook afterwards, if you think it of value.) The book's introduction can be found on the next page of this site. On subsequent pages are excerpts from Chapter 2, and the book's epilogue, which summarises the progress the Social Policy Bond idea has made over the years. I’m still looking for a conventional publisher for this book.

Rather than wait for government to take the lead, you might be interested in issuing your own Social Policy Bonds. A short discussion paper, using the example of bonds targeting the female literacy rate in Pakistan, can be freely downloaded here. This is a pdf file and is about 9200 words in length.