Quality Of Public Goods Research Articles

Examination of Performance Measurement Prospects on the Fourth Industrial Revolution in the Nigerian Selected Public Sector Agencies

Performance measurement in public sector organisations has engendered concern of both practitioners and academia. In an emerging economy like Nigeria, technological breakthroughs like the fourth industrial revolution as a mechanism for enhanced performance has further excited concerns for performance measurement. Literature acknowledged that a proper measurement of performance is the base for improving the quality of public goods and services. As such, this study seeks to examine the prospects of performance measurement in the era of IR 4.0 using an exploratory multiple case study research design. Interview method to gather primary data on the phenomenon of IR 4.0 and performance measurement across ten Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) situated in the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria was adopted. Interview results show that though there were persons designated as management accountants, the management accounting function is performed through the accounting department. The study also observed that the internet, digitisation, broadband, and human-computer interface as aspects of IR 4.0 recorded “good” scores. However, Artificial Intelligence (AI), which is an essential attribute of IR 4.0, had inconsistent ratings. This can be attributed to the low level of awareness of the phenomenon of IR 4.0 its numerous facets which can be deployed, such that performance of typical public sector organisations ranked or measured on vale satisfaction of beneficiaries rather than target figures and annual employee appraisal. A strong political will of administrators of the sampled MDA was identified as an essential factor for fully adopting what IR 4.0 has to offer.

Unpacking Corruption Techniques and Countermeasures

This paper discusses mechanisms of corruption in the Philippines and surveys impact evaluation studies of anti-corruption initiatives across the world with a focus on bottom-up or grassroots approaches. Corruption is an age-old issue faced by societies all over the world, but most especially by developing countries that do not yet have the strong institutions that could curb corrupt behavior and tendencies. In the Philippines, corrupt activities take on many forms from vote-buying to bid-rigging. Because of corruption, citizens have difficulty in accessing to quality public goods and services. Literature on corruption has evolved from focusing solely on the relationship between public officials and top bureaucrats/politicians (“horizontal accountability”) and has expanded to the accountability mechanisms between voter and politician (“vertical accountability”) and citizen and public servants (“social accountability”). Grassroots approaches addressing social accountability mechanisms have become increasingly popular in developing countries as these fit well with community-driven politics in these societies and empowers citizens in these countries to push back against erring officials. However, there are issues in the effectiveness of grassroots approaches because of the community’s possible lack of capability in processing and acting on information related to government activities, the lack of power in collective civil action, and its susceptibility to local capture by elites. More than ever, it is crucial for those in developing countries to be more watchful of the different players involved in corruption and how existing anti-corruption initiatives are holding up in the ever-changing political landscape.

Vertical and Horizontal Decentralization and Ethnic Diversity in Sub-Saharan Africa

Vertical decentralization, either at the deconcentration, delegation or, more rarely, the devolution level, has been instituted in most countries of Sub-Saharan Africa. It usually has the effect of increasing the quantity as well as the quality, in terms of health and education, of public goods. More neglected in the literature is the issue of horizontal decentralization, shifting the decision-making power from the central ministry of finance to the ministries of education and health, as well as strengthening the legislative and judicial branches of government. We examine the relationship between horizontal decentralization with its important ethnic dimension and vertical decentralization. Local governments are accountable to the center under vertical and to democratic forces and civil society under horizontal decentralization. Smaller local units are more likely to be more homogeneous ethnically, leading to a larger quantity and higher quality of public goods.

Tax Revenue and Nigeria Economic Growth

This study examines the relationship between Tax Revenue and Nigeria Economic Growth. In order to achieve this objective, data was gathered through secondary means. Tax Revenue is proxy by Petroleum Profit Tax, Value Added Tax and Companies Income Tax, while Economic Growth is proxy by Gross Domestic Product. Data collected were analyzed with the aid of the Stata computer software. The study revealed that Petroleum Profit Tax (oil tax revenue) has a positive but no significant relationship with Nigeria Economic Growth, while Value Added Tax and Companies Income Tax (non-oil Tax Revenue) have significant relationship with Nigeria Economic Growth. The study recommends that government should minimize the wide spread corruption and leakages prevalent in tax administration in Nigeria, and transparently and judiciously account for tax revenue generated through the provision of more quality public goods and services, and need not to increase the rates of Value Added Tax and Companies Income Tax in the short run, but to closely monitor the operations of companies engaged in petroleum operations to minimize tax evasion, and as well as support the development of entrepreneurial activities in order to significantly increase Tax Revenue so as to sustain the significant relationship of VAT and CIT (non-oil tax) revenue with Nigeria Economic Growth.

Tax Revenue and Nigeria Economic Growth

This study examines the relationship between Tax Revenue and Nigeria Economic Growth. In order to achieve this objective, data was gathered through secondary means. Tax Revenue is proxy by Petroleum Profit Tax, Value Added Tax and Companies Income Tax, while Economic Growth is proxy by Gross Domestic Product. Data collected were analyzed with the aid of the Stata computer software. The study revealed that Petroleum Profit Tax (oil tax revenue) has a positive but no significant relationship with Nigeria Economic Growth, while Value Added Tax and Companies Income Tax (non-oil Tax Revenue) have significant relationship with Nigeria Economic Growth. The study recommends that government should minimize the wide spread corruption and leakages prevalent in tax administration in Nigeria, and transparently and judiciously account for tax revenue generated through the provision of more quality public goods and services, and need not to increase the rates of Value Added Tax and Companies Income Tax in the short run, but to closely monitor the operations of companies engaged in petroleum operations to minimize tax evasion, and as well as support the development of entrepreneurial activities in order to significantly increase Tax Revenue so as to sustain the significant relationship of VAT and CIT (non-oil tax) revenue with Nigeria Economic Growth.

Государственная социальная политика на современном этапе развития России

The effectiveness of the state social policy largely determines the production of quality public goods by state structures, the improvement of the demographic situation, the comprehensive development of human capital, the improvement of social well-being and the socio-economic development of the country as a whole. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to reseasch the main directions of state social policy in Russia and assess the effectiveness of the social sector. The methodological basis of the study was the Keynesian concept of state regulation of the economy, since the state sets basic social standards, provides social protection for the population and social guarantees. We conducted the study using Rosstat data reflecting the main indicators of the social sphere of Russia. We determined the overall effectiveness of State social policy on the basis of changes in demographic processes, indicators of the living standards of the population, the volume of state social expenditures, the functioning of the education system, health care and social services. We studied the difficult demographic situation in Russia. We considered indicators of the living standards of the population and a decrease in their level, an increase in poverty and a significant social stratification in society; analyzed government spending on education, health and social policy; summarized the main problems in the educational sphere in the provision of medical services and in the process of state social services of the population; established that the functioning of the social sphere does not fully meet social needs, and the activities of the social sector of the state are ineffective. The proposed study of state social policy demonstrates its relevance to Russian society.

Technological Innovation and Its Impact on Public Sector Efficiency and Performance: Aerial Imagery in Property Tax Assessment Administration

ABSTRACTTechnological innovations can help public organizations deliver higher quality public goods and services at lower average costs. While a considerable literature exploring the determinants of technology adoption and diffusion exists, much less is known on whether technology innovations improve public sector outputs. This study investigates the impact of high-resolution, oblique aerial imagery, an increasingly common technology used by local governments in the US, on the inspection efficiency and quality of property assessment administration. Aerial imagery is often argued to be a low-cost substitute to in-person inspections of property. Drawing on data from 2013 through 2017 for property assessing districts in Texas, aerial imagery use is found to improve the rate at which properties are inspected as well as improve the quality of assessments. The results further provide evidence that investments in aerial imagery are best justified on budgetary grounds rather than as a means to improve organizational performance.

Who Governs? How Shifts in Political Power Shape Perceptions of Local Government Services

What factors influence citizens’ perceptions of local government services? To answer this question, we examine citizens’ perceptions of public education in post-Katrina New Orleans. Following Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans began to transform most of its traditional public schools into charters. Although studies show that test scores have improved since the mass adoption of charters post-Katrina, surveys show that most Black citizens in New Orleans do not perceive that the New Orleans schools have improved post-Katrina. A majority of White residents, however, perceive that the schools are better post-Katrina. Relying on a survey of New Orleans residents, we argue that local shifts in political power by race help explain the racial differences in perceptions of the public schools. The study’s findings suggest that perceptions of the quality of public goods are shaped by perceptions of “who governs?”

It's the Economy! Perceptions of Host-Countries' Institutions and Individual Life Satisfaction of Intra-European Migrants

By drawing data from the European Social Survey (ESS) (2008–2016), this study explores how immigrants' assessments of economy, democracy, and quality of public goods (such as health and education systems) in the receiving societies contribute to their life satisfaction. Results indicate that satisfaction with the economy is the strongest correlate of individual life satisfaction among European immigrants, and this association is particularly pronounced among immigrants from Turkey, Eastern and Southern Europe. Assuming that immigrants compare institutions of their host and home countries when assessing institutional features of the host countries, relative gains in satisfaction with the performance of host-country economy are shown to be associated with particularly higher levels of overall life satisfaction among immigrants from Turkey, Eastern and Southern European countries than the rest of Europe. We conclude that, in relative terms, migrants from countries with less well-functioning economies to countries with more favorable economic conditions display higher levels of perceived satisfaction with the host country economies, which contributes considerably to their overall life satisfaction.

Can the poor organize? Public goods and self-help groups in rural India

In many low- and middle-income countries, the quality of public goods available to the poor is inadequate. We report findings from a unique combination of a village-randomized controlled trial and a lab-in-the-field behavioral experiment involving the establishment of “self-help” groups in one of the poorest districts in India. The presence of these groups improved villagers' access to and quality of certain critical local public goods, in particular, water. Our evidence suggests that the underlying mechanisms responsible were better information provision through the groups, stronger engagement by members in village governance, and lower coordination costs. Public goods games played in a subset of control and treatment villages four years following the start of the intervention, additionally, indicate that cooperative norms are stronger in villages where self-help groups were present. We find little evidence that membership leads to a convergence of tastes among group members. These results suggest that, in contrast to traditional participatory development programs, self-help groups can build durable social capital that can improve government performance in poor communities.

Managing for Citizen Satisfaction: Is Good Not Enough?

Citizen satisfaction is a popular means of performance management. It underscores a common conception that citizens are customers who are concerned about the quality of public goods and services. We offer a theory that suggests the quantity of public goods and services is also important. We develop our theory based on democratic models of the public where citizens are concerned about equity and accessibility to public goods and services. Using data from two municipal surveys and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), we test three hypotheses and find that both quality and quantity of public service provision are significant antecedents to citizen satisfaction. In our conclusion, we explain how these results call for a more complex conceptualization of the performance associated with managing for citizen satisfaction, and we recommend public managers develop and employ skills that recognize the complex consumptive and democratic attributes of citizens in a public economy.

Dovetailing the Belt and Road Initiative with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: The Connotations, Objectives and Pathways

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has been put into practice for nearly six years since it was put forward in 2013. While the achievements have attracted the world’s attention, it is also necessary to think over the way of building the “Road and Belt” with a higher quality. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (hereinafter referred to as the “2030 Agenda”) is the latest result of the United Nations’ sustainable development cause and the world’s consensus, with its authority being widely recognized. There are many similarities between BRI and the 2030 Agenda. Dovetailing them can help dispelling the international community’s worries, and promoting the international position and moral advantage of participating countries and friendly groups, and help introducing BRI to the rest of the world. The important theoretical and policy issues of dovetailing BRI with the 2030 Agenda involve three aspects, i.e. connotations, objectives and pathways. The core of the dovetail lies at the understanding of the dialectical relationship between actions and goals, and between the current and the future. Its purpose is to build a common discourse system with other countries, increase the supply of quality public goods, promote the global sustainable development process and facilitate the implementation of the sustainable development goals in the developing countries along the Belt and Road. The pathway is to dovetail the ideas, fields and mechanisms of BRI with those of the 2030 Agenda.

Public Private Partnership: Insights from the Egyptian Experience

Partnership between private and public organizations has become very vital for policy implementation. PPP contracts have been successful for the recent years in many countries such as United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, South Africa, and The United States. Egypt is considered to be one of the MENA region leaders in the PPP field. PPPs are considered to be on the top of the Egyptian economic reform agenda so as to increase the private sector involvement in public services through leveraging private sector spending against public spending. The objective of this theoretical paper is to analyze the role of public private partnership in Egypt with regards to developing meaningful cooperation between the governments and businesses in a way that enables effective provision of cost efficient quality public goods, services and facilities. The significance of the study lies in the fact that PPP has become a crucial need for the government of Egypt for rendering an efficient public services and projects amidst all the challenges for developing the country after the 25th of January Revolution.

Stimulating the social and environmental benefits of agriculture and forestry: An EU-based comparative analysis

Stimulating an effective provision of public goods and ecosystem services from Europe’s farmland and forests is a critical challenge for policy-makers. In this paper we focus on three aspects of this challenge. Firstly, we explore the different drivers that influence the provision of public goods and ecosystem services by farming and forestry. Secondly, we identify the key motivational, institutional and socio-economic factors that can encourage the provision of these benefits. And thirdly, we examine the role of governance arrangements, of new forms of cooperation and of institutional change in enhancing the provision of public goods and ecosystem services.The paper is based on a comparative analysis of 34 sectoral, multi-sectoral and territorial real-life case studies spread across 10 EU countries which were carried out as part of the EU-funded PEGASUS project. The analysis pays attention to the functional inter- and intra-relationships between farming and/or forestry, and the quantity and quality of public goods and ecosystem services that these activities provide. This analysis allowed us to identify the key factors that enhance the provision of social and environmental benefits. These include involving a wide range of actors in initiatives and actions, the establishment of appropriate governance arrangements in multi-actor partnerships, the key roles of coordination, cooperation and trust, and the importance of finding common interests and creating synergies and win–win situations. In most of the case studies, we found a complex interaction between different drivers, actors, motivations and interests. In general, we found that the provision of public goods and ecosystem services from farmland and forests is stimulated by policy interventions, planning and regulations that encourage, and support, the engagement of the private sector, and of civil society, in joint actions.

The Nexus Between Business-Investment Climate and Firm Performance in The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region

Business and investment climate indicators are relations between the public and private sectors. They may take the form of formal, regular, and informal interactions and their scope can include the economy as a whole or they may target specific types of firms in specific sectors or certain policy processes. Effective business and investment climate is important, because it can lead to a higher rate of investment, profits, and improved productivity, through the creation of an institutional environment, where the state provides high quality public goods, including infrastructure, political stability, and strategies for reducing consumption, fair and effective public administration. This study aims to explore the impact of business-investment climate on firm’s value added, labour and total factor productivity (TFP) in a sample of six countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and Turkey. The analysis relies on micro-level data derived from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys over the period 2006-2016. To reduce endogeneity coming from possible reverse causality and the perceptions about business climate we follow an instrumental variables (IV) approach applying the two-stage least squares (2SLS) method. Based on our favoured 2SLS estimates the obstacles in business climate may reduce the firm performance measures by 15-40 per cent. These findings indicate the importance of the quality in business climate and how the improvement in its effectiveness can have a very considerable positive impact on firms’ performance and thus in the overall economic growth of a country.

Institutional asymmetry as a challenge in tackling the grey economy in Bulgaria

Since EU accession in 2007, Bulgaria has ranked as the member state with the largest informal economy of some 31% of GDP. Despite diverse policy measures applied to crack down on tax evasion and undeclared work, some 'grey' practices, such as under-reporting salaries and turnover have flourished recently. The aim of this paper is to critically assess the effectiveness of the dominant policy approach in Bulgaria to tackle the shadow economy. It argues that the role of low tax morale and the high level of institutional incongruence have been neglected as drivers for widespread social legitimacy of informality. The strong focus of the authorities in recent years on administrative control measures creates a vicious circle in the long term - increasing the power of the state through deterrence while failing to guarantee procedural and redistributive fairness or highlight the benefits of compliance create an even greater mistrust by economic actors. Instead, the paper calls for considering an 'indirect' approach as an alternative strategy, by promoting voluntary commitment through pursuing a change in social norms and values, but also increasing the legitimacy of institutions and the quality of public goods and services to reduce the gap between taxpayers and the state.

Institutional asymmetry as a challenge in tackling the grey economy in Bulgaria

Since EU accession in 2007, Bulgaria has ranked as the member state with the largest informal economy of some 31% of GDP. Despite diverse policy measures applied to crack down on tax evasion and undeclared work, some 'grey' practices, such as under-reporting salaries and turnover have flourished recently. The aim of this paper is to critically assess the effectiveness of the dominant policy approach in Bulgaria to tackle the shadow economy. It argues that the role of low tax morale and the high level of institutional incongruence have been neglected as drivers for widespread social legitimacy of informality. The strong focus of the authorities in recent years on administrative control measures creates a vicious circle in the long term - increasing the power of the state through deterrence while failing to guarantee procedural and redistributive fairness or highlight the benefits of compliance create an even greater mistrust by economic actors. Instead, the paper calls for considering an 'indirect' approach as an alternative strategy, by promoting voluntary commitment through pursuing a change in social norms and values, but also increasing the legitimacy of institutions and the quality of public goods and services to reduce the gap between taxpayers and the state.

How to boost tax compliance and tax morale in Serbia?

Shadow economy in Serbia is estimated at approx. 31% of GDP, which is by one sixth above the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) average, suggesting that tax compliance and tax morale in Serbia are low, with severe effects on public finances sustainability, quality of goods provided by the public sector, and doing business environment. This paper examines the factors of high shadow economy, i.e. the drivers of low tax compliance in Serbia compared to other CEE countries, and identifies key elements of the effective strategy aimed at boosting tax compliance and tax morale. Tax compliance decision depends on fundamental factors (level of taxes, penalties and probability of detection), as well as on other factors shaping taxpayers' willingness to pay taxes voluntarily (tax morale). The results suggest that the level and structure of tax burden, along with the tax penalties policy in Serbia do not differ significantly from other CEE countries, while probability of detection of non-compliance is most likely lower than in other countries. In terms of tax morale drivers, Serbia performs as good as other CEE countries in terms of tax compliance costs, while frequent tax amnesties and low quality of public goods and services (compared to other CEE countries) have adverse impact on tax morale and tax compliance. Effective strategy to boost tax compliance and tax morale should entail a thorough reform of the Tax Administration, credible commitment that tax amnesties will not be repeated and a set of measures aimed at improving the quality of basic goods and services provided by the public sector.

Which Public? Whose Goods? What We Know (and What We Don't) About Public Goods in Rural China

AbstractWhat have we learned from a decade of research on the provision of public goods in the Chinese countryside? This review article surveys the literature in political science, economics and Chinese area studies. It describes the three dominant types of explanations for variation in the quality of public goods: local elections, social sanctioning and economic policies. It then argues that these findings are plagued by a set of common problems. Scholars mean different things when they use the term “public goods,” making their findings difficult to compare. Furthermore, the most common measures of public goods ignore the ways in which local officials manipulate statistics to enhance their career prospects and the interconnected nature of geographic-administrative units in the Chinese state. I suggest some ways to address these problems, and make recommendations for new directions in research on the topic.

Public Sector Reforms in Africa: A Collection of Essays

This paper provides a compendium of public sector reform in Africa in an analytical and prescriptive manner. It examines the idea of reform and public service reform in Africa up till its recent framework, and showcases institutional framework for making reform, as well as studies on reform experiences and relevant information on best practices, challenges and strategies for improving public sector management performance. This paper employed stratified sampling technique. Africa was stratified alongside its five (5) regions, thereby selecting one (1) country from each of the regions. It relied extensively on secondary sources of data by drawing from documentary sources, such as: books, journals, pub­lications and reports which give official views of reform initiatives and processes in the five (5) selected countries. The generated qualitative data were utilized with the aid of content analysis. This paper revealed the three (3) prominent phases of reform in Africa vis-a-vis its objectives, assumptions, features, strategies, achievements and challenges. It therefore concluded that organizational mechanisms such as decentralization, privatization and performance management should be adopted as reformative measures with a view to improving the responsiveness of governments to public concerns; improving the quality of public goods and services; increasing the efficiency of service delivery; as well as promoting accountability and ethical values.