How “Pay for Success” Allows Governments to Experiment Without Risk

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How “Pay for Success” Allows Governments to Experiment Without Risk

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Length:

32 minutes

Released:

Mar 23, 2016

Format:

Podcast episode

Description

HKS Professor Jeffrey Liebman, Director of the Kennedy School’s Government Performance Lab, explains how Pay For Success, also known as Social Impact Bonds, allow governments to test out new social programs without risking taxpayer funds if they fail.

Released:

Mar 23, 2016

Format:

Podcast episode

Titles in the series (100)

Each week, Host Matt Cadwallader speaks with leading experts in public policy, media, and international affairs about their experiences confronting the world's most pressing public problems.

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The Other Effects of Torture: HKS Lecturer Doug Johnson, Director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, goes beyond the debate over the efficacy of torture to look at the consequences of its use in legal, military and international relations contexts. by PolicyCast
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Behind the Steady Recovery in Cyprus: Cyprus’ Minister of Energy, Commerce, Industry and Tourism Yiorgos Lakkotrypis describes his country’s slow emergence from a deep economic recession following a 2013 EU bail-in that came with significant austerity measures attached. He points out brigh by PolicyCast
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A Political Crossroads in Indonesia: HKS Adjunct Lecturer Jay Rosengard, faculty chair of the Ash Center’s HKS Indonesia Program, breaks down the political climate in Indonesia, just months after the election of a new, potentially transformational president. He explains how Indonesia’s still by PolicyCast
15 min listen
Better Policy Through A.R.T.: Tony Award-winning director Diane Paulus, Artistic Director of the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) and professor of the practice of theatre at Harvard, explains why the arts are critical to the shaping of public policy. Paulus offers examples of how a by PolicyCast
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Designing Smarter Policy: HKS Professor Asim Khwaja, Co-Director of the Evidence for Policy Design program, explains the benefits of bringing academics into the field to develop policy in collaboration with practitioners. by PolicyCast
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Tunisia and the Arab Spring: Former Tunisian Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa and the Middle East Institute’s Dr. Paul Salem discuss Tunisia’s relative success in establishing a stable democracy in the wake of the Arab Spring. Jomaa, who recently delivered an address at the JFK Jr. Forum, by PolicyCast
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The Iran Nuclear Accord: What Happens Next?: Gary Samore, President Obama’s former principal advisor on arms control and nuclear proliferation who currently serves as the Director for Research at the Belfer Center, gives his take on the agreement struck between Iran and a group of world powers refer by PolicyCast
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How Partisan is the US Judiciary?: HKS Assistant Professor Maya Sen describes new research breaking down political leanings within the United States judiciary. The analyses exposes a partisan divide between lawyers and judges and finds a link between certain political leanings and specific by PolicyCast
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Cracks in the Glass Ceiling: Lessons From Finland's Former President: Former Finnish President Tarja Halonen, currently in residence at the Kennedy School as an Angelopoulos Global Public Leaders Fellow, recounts the challenges she faced as a woman ascending the Finnish ranks of power. She also explains some of the facto by PolicyCast
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The Power of Protests, Propaganda and Religion: HKS Associate Professor David Yanagizawa-Drott’s quantitative analysis of three seemingly disparate topics shows the power of protests to change policy, the power of propaganda to induce violence and the power of religion to create happiness despite reduc by PolicyCast
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How the UN set the standard for human rights in the corporate world: HKS Professor John Ruggie, who has twice served in senior roles at the United Nations, describes how the UN was able to leverage its convening power to create an unprecedented set of "Guiding Principles" for corporate responsibility on human rights issues by PolicyCast
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239 He predicted globalization’s failure, now he’s planning what’s next: Summary: For more than a quarter century, economist and Harvard Kennedy School professor Dani Rodrik has been ringing alarm bells about the dangers of globalization. And for a long time, it didn’t seem like a whole lot of people were listening. Now as record economic inequality, a climate in crisis, and global financial shocks from to the COVID pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have exposed the vulnerabilities and shortcomings of unchecked globalization and neoliberal orthodoxy about the primacy of markets, Rodrik may be having the world’s least-satisfying “I told you so” moment. But while the temptation might be to look backward for vindication, Rodrik is choosing to look toward solutions instead. He says that finding a way forward for the world economy will require two kinds of thinking: small picture—about how to create good jobs in an equitable way in specific settings—and big picture: imaging possible by PolicyCast
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238 Reform, refugees, and the war next door: President Maia Sandu of Moldova: Maia Sandu has been president of Moldova since December 2020. She is the first woman to be president of the country, and she named fellow Party of Action and Solidarity member Natalia Gavrilița as prime minister, marking the first time that two women have held the country’s two highest political posts at the same time. Sandu was named prime minister in June 2019, but was removed from power just six months later when Moldova’s Russia-leaning socialist party pulled out of the governing coalition over her reform efforts. She served as the country’s education minister from 2012 until 2015, instituting numerous reforms including ending widespread cheating on exams and bribery of education officials. Sando holds earned her mid-career masters of public administration degree at Harvard Kennedy School in 2010, and worked as a senior advisor for the World Bank in Washington DC before returning to Moldova. Sandu was bor by PolicyCast
26 min listen
237 The pandemic's silver lining—a treasure trove of data on social protection programs: Rema Hanna is the Jeffrey Cheah Professor of South-East Asia Studies and Chair of the International Development Area at the Harvard Kennedy School. She also serves as the Faculty Director of Evidence for Policy Design (EPoD) at Harvard University’s Center for International Development and is the co-Scientific Director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) South East Asia Office in Indonesia. In addition, Professor Hanna is a Research Associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and an affiliate of the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD). Her research revolves around improving the provision of public services in developing and emerging nations, particularly for the very poor. She combines economic theory, qualitative field work, extensive data collection, and cutting-edge empirical analysis to offer insights into how governments func by PolicyCast
35 min listen
236 Worldwide outrage over atrocities in Ukraine is enabling a new era of international justice: A mass grave behind a church. Bodies of children and families buried under the rubble of a theater where they had been seeking refuge. Streets littered with bodies of civilians who were shot, hands tied behind their backs. Almost every day, the headlines bring news of new violations of international human rights norms and the rules of war in Ukraine, including attacks by the Russian army on hospitals, schools, residential buildings, and even water facilities. Those revelations have also launched daily accusations against Russian President Vladimir Putin and his military of war crimes and illegal aggression, and calls for international investigations and prosecutions. Now a group of Harvard Professors says that the war in Ukraine could be a watershed moment for the evolving notion of meaningful international justice. In a recent Op-Ed, Harvard Kennedy School Professor Kathryn Sikkink and H by PolicyCast
37 min listen

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Need to solve an intractable problem? Collaboration is hard but worth it.: Harvard Kennedy School faculty member Jorrit de Jong and Harvard Business School Professor Amy Edmondson say the big, intractable problems challenges facing city leaders today are too complex to be addressed by any one agency or government department. Complex challenges like the shortage of economic opportunity and affordable housing, homelessness, the effects of the climate crisis, crime—and can only be solved by multiple organizations working together. But that’s easier said than done. Bringing together government agencies, nonprofits, private business, academia, and the public into successful collaborations can be a huge challenge. Different people bring different agendas and goals. They don’t necessarily trust each other. Sometimes they can’t even agree on what the problem actually is and they fail before even getting started. In a recent study, de Jong and Edmondson found that the most successful problem-so by PolicyCast
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A Nobelist’s Controversial Approach To Solving Inequality, With James Heckman: Over his distinguished career, Nobel Prize-winning economist James Heckman has dedicated his research to understanding and solving the problem of inequality. He has closely studied how investing in early childhood development is linked to better outcomes—from higher earnings, to violence reduction, and even breaking the cycle of poverty. His groundbreaking research has been applied across the globe—from Jamaica to Denmark and China, and it has given policymakers important insights into education, job-training programs, minimum wage legislation and more. His most recent work has centered on examining social mobility, and he’s help found an entire field on the economics of human flourishing. Heckman is the Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Professor in Economics at the University of Chicago, where he has been a faculty member since 1973. He directs the Center for the Economics of Human Development. by Big Brains
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How “Pay for Success” Allows Governments to Experiment Without Risk

How “Pay for Success” Allows Governments to Experiment Without Risk

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