Embezzlement of resources is hampering public service delivery throughout the developing world.Research on this issue is hindered by problems of measurement. To overcome these problems we use an economic experiment to investigate the determinants of coorupt behaviour. We focus on three aspects...

In Mozambique, easily treatable diseases such as malaria, diarrhea, and respiratory infections contribute to a heavy burden of disease. Notwithstanding efforts by the Mozambican government to promote access to health care, many who could benefit from simple cost-effective health care services do...

Utilization of health services are an important policy concern in most developing countries, reflecting both efforts to improve health outcomes and to meet international obligations to make health services broadly accessible. Although many policy and research initiatives have focused on the need...

In recent years, a large body of empirical work has focused on measuring and explaining socioeconomic inequalities in health outcomes and health service use. In any effort to address these questions, analysts must confront the issue of how to measure socioeconomic status. In developing...

Microfinance is one of the most commonly applied development interventions of our time. It is also one of the most gender-biased. In part, this is due to targeting. However, it might also relate to the emphasis placed by microfinance providers on group-loans. If women have a comparative...

This paper presents rigorous and direct tests of two assumptions relating to limited commitment and asymmetric information that current underpin current models of risk pooling. A specially designed economic experiment involving 678 subjects across 23 Zimbabwean villages is used to solve the...

Using original survey data, we document the activities, resources, and governance structure of NGOs operating in Uganda. The NGO sector is funded primarily by international non-governmental organizations and bilateral donors. We find large differences in size and funding across NGOs, with only a...

Using original survey data on beneficiary assessment, we examine the performance of the NGO sector in Uganda. In general satisfaction with NGO intervention is high.We find evidence that NGOs endeavour to redress the balance between rich and poor communities but also that NGOs neglect isolated...

We explore the role of reciprocity in wage determination by combining experimental and survey data. The experiment is similar to Berg, Dickhaut and McCabe's (1995) and is conducted with Ghanaian manufacturing workers. The survey relates to the same sample workers and the firms within which they...

This paper investigates whether expectations of trustworthiness and resulting acts of trust accord with an objective model of trustworthiness or are biased. Combining experimental and survey data, I find that Ghanaian workers appropriately take account of the religiousness of trustees, but...