The Power of Information in Public Services: Evidence from Education in Uganda

In this paper we argue that innovations in governance of social services are an effective way to improve outcomes such as attainment of universal primary education. To test this hypothesis we exploit an unusual policy experiment: a newspaper campaign in Uganda aimed at reducing the capture of public...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors:	Reinikka, Ritva, Svensson, Jakob
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	EN
Published:	2012
Subjects:	Analysis of Education I210 Education: Government Policy I280 Economic Development: Human Resources Human Development Income Distribution Migration O150
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4884

id	okr-10986-4884
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-48842021-04-23T14:02:20Z The Power of Information in Public Services: Evidence from Education in Uganda Reinikka, Ritva Svensson, Jakob Analysis of Education I210 Education: Government Policy I280 Economic Development: Human Resources Human Development Income Distribution Migration O150 In this paper we argue that innovations in governance of social services are an effective way to improve outcomes such as attainment of universal primary education. To test this hypothesis we exploit an unusual policy experiment: a newspaper campaign in Uganda aimed at reducing the capture of public funds by providing schools (parents) with systematic information to monitor local officials' handling of a large education grant program. Combining survey and administrative data, we show that public access to information can be a powerful deterrent to the capture of funds at the local level and that the reduction in the capture of funds that resulted had a positive effect on school enrollment and learning outcomes. 2012-03-30T07:30:12Z 2012-03-30T07:30:12Z 2011 Journal Article Journal of Public Economics 00472727 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4884 EN http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank Journal Article Uganda
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	EN
topic	Analysis of Education I210 Education: Government Policy I280 Economic Development: Human Resources Human Development Income Distribution Migration O150
spellingShingle	Analysis of Education I210 Education: Government Policy I280 Economic Development: Human Resources Human Development Income Distribution Migration O150 Reinikka, Ritva Svensson, Jakob The Power of Information in Public Services: Evidence from Education in Uganda
geographic_facet	Uganda
relation	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo
description	In this paper we argue that innovations in governance of social services are an effective way to improve outcomes such as attainment of universal primary education. To test this hypothesis we exploit an unusual policy experiment: a newspaper campaign in Uganda aimed at reducing the capture of public funds by providing schools (parents) with systematic information to monitor local officials' handling of a large education grant program. Combining survey and administrative data, we show that public access to information can be a powerful deterrent to the capture of funds at the local level and that the reduction in the capture of funds that resulted had a positive effect on school enrollment and learning outcomes.
format	Journal Article
author	Reinikka, Ritva Svensson, Jakob
author_facet	Reinikka, Ritva Svensson, Jakob
author_sort	Reinikka, Ritva
title	The Power of Information in Public Services: Evidence from Education in Uganda
title_short	The Power of Information in Public Services: Evidence from Education in Uganda
title_full	The Power of Information in Public Services: Evidence from Education in Uganda
title_fullStr	The Power of Information in Public Services: Evidence from Education in Uganda
title_full_unstemmed	The Power of Information in Public Services: Evidence from Education in Uganda
title_sort	power of information in public services: evidence from education in uganda
publishDate	2012
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4884
_version_	1764393105435394048

The Power of Information in Public Services: Evidence from Education in Uganda

Similar Items