This literature review brings together the existing evidence of impact, outcomes and cost that exist across reciprocal exchange systems.

Key findings:

• This report maps out four types of exchange system and reviews the literature surrounding the outcomes and cost benefits of each one.
• These types are: time bank and service credit models, reward points, local currencies and backed currencies.
• The exchange systems generally lead to beneficial outcomes and improvements, and there is evidence of cost-benefits too.
• However, evidence is limited (particularly as regards backed currencies) and the evaluation that would provide more robust indicators on outcomes and costs is sometimes lacking.

Time banks, complementary currencies and peer-to-peer platforms for collaborative consumption are all examples of reciprocal exchange systems. In this review we have created a typology of different types of systems to organise the evidence.

The scope of this review was international, and the focus was to gather evidence on outcomes and cost benefits. The evidence has been largely gathered from academic articles and evaluations, including self-evaluations.

Author

Julia Slay