Decentralisation and government provision of public goods

The public health sector in Uganda

Datos Bibliográficos

ID20304035
AutoresJohn S Akin (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), John Akin, Paul Hutchinson (0000-0002-5435-7799, Tulane University), Koleman Strumpf (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
Año2005
Volumen41
Número8
Páginas1417-1443
Fecha de publicación2005-11-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe Journal of Development Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0022-0388 • E-ISSN: 1743-9140
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00220380500187075
OpenAlexW1995669894
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas17
Referencias citadas18

While many developing countries have devolved health care responsibilities to local governments in recent years, no study has examined whether decentralisation actually leads to greater health sector allocative efficiency. This paper approaches this question by modeling local government budgeting decisions under decentralisation. The model leads to conclusions not all favourable to decentralisation and produces several testable hypotheses concerning local government spending choices. For a brief empirical test of the model we look at data from Uganda. The data are of a type seldom available to researchers–actual local government budgets for the health sector in a developing country. The health budgets are disaggregated into specific types of activities based on a subjective characterisation of each activity's ‘publicness’. The empirical results provide preliminary evidence that local government health planners are allocating declining proportions of their budgets to public goods activities

Allocative efficiency · Business · Central government · Decentralization · Developing country · Economic growth · Economics · Economy · Government (linguistics) · Health care · Local government · Market economy · Political science · Public economics · Public good · Public health · Public sector · Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth · Global Maternal and Child Health · Local Government Finance and Decentralization · Medicine · Public Administration