Corruption and mismanagement of public resources can affect the quality of government services and undermine growth. Can citizens in poor communities be empowered to demand better-quality public investments? We look at whether providing social accountability training and information on project...

Deficiency of urban infrastructure facilities is one of the main problems behind the lower rate of urbanization in India. It has also unfavorably affected the realization of the full potential of the urban sector's contribution to national gross domestic product in India. From this perspective,...

This study was inspired by the desire to contribute to literature on performance management from the context of a developing country. The guiding research questions were: How do managers use performance information in decision making? Why do managers use performance information the way they do?...

Welfare services are an important part of the Nordic welfare states both financially and for welfare state redistribution. Baumol's cost disease, Wagner's law, and population ageing are often said to bring challenges for the future provision of welfare services. While none of the three poses an...

Die Frage nach der angemessenen Höhe der Staatsausgaben nimmt eine zentrale Stellung in der öffentlichen Diskussion ein. Die Beantwortung der Frage erfordert ein Grundverständnis darüber zu schaffen, welche Aufgaben der Staat übernehmen sollte als auch welche Wirkungen von staatlicher...

In this paper we argue that different preferences in a decentralized system lead to under provision of public goods. We analyze the provision of public primary education in nineteenth-century Prussia which was characterized by a linguistically polarized society and a decentralized education...

Human society is full of would-be 'change agents', a restless mix of campaigners, lobbyists, and officials, both individuals and organizations, set on transforming the world. They want to improve public services, reform laws and regulations, guarantee human rights, get a fairer deal for those on...

Introduction: public finance and the origins of inequality -- The municipal ideal -- The fiscal state -- Nickels and dimes: funding municipal projects -- Bricks and mortar: building essential infrastructure -- Pests and pestilence: paying for public health -- Order and progress: investing in...

The essay discusses some key features of the wawe of public sector reforms that has swept through the OECD area during the last three decades under the heading of New Public Management. I review what economic theory and the empirical evidence can say about the effects of introducing pay for...

This paper finds that per capita municipal spending on public services is strongly and non-linearly correlated to urban population density. Optimal expenditure levels for municipal services are achieved when densities are close to 9,000 residents per square kilometer. In this study of...

Efficiency is an important consideration for those who manage public services. Costs vary with output and with a variety of other factors. In the case of higher education, for example, factors include quality, student demographics, the scale and scope of the higher education provider, and the...

This study evaluates the effectiveness of contracting out mandatory publicly provided counselling and training for long-term unemployed in Flanders (Belgium) to private for-profit and non-profit organisations (FPOs and NPOs). A multivariate transition model exploits timing-of-events and novel...

This study evaluates the effectiveness of contracting out mandatory publicly provided counselling and training for long-term unemployed in Flanders (Belgium) to private for-profit and non-profit organisations (FPOs and NPOs). A multivariate transition model exploits timing-of-events and novel...

We consider a model in which business public services must be financed with either a source-based tax on mobile capital, such as a property tax, or a tax on production, such as an origin-based VAT and assess which of the two tax instruments is more efficient. In general, both a capital tax and a...