4. The importance of robust institutions to encourage participation and ownership The strengthening of accountability and transparency mechanisms increases public ownership of, and involvement in both the design and implementation of the verification system. Safe guards are needed to guarantee protection from retribution if individual and public participation in oversight mechanisms is to be en...

We ask whether tax earmarking can foster accountability in public provision of goods and services when consumers can privately monitor provision. We show that earmarking can raise the stakes that consumers have in monitoring public provision independently of how taxes are earmarked, because it introduces a more direct linkage between monitoring and taxes paid.

Politicians in‡uence the allocation of …nance either directly via state banks, or indirectly via private banks using banking regulation or creditor rights. With state ownership of banks, entrepreneurs may form coalitions to bribe politicians to obtain scarce loans. With private ownership of banks, interest groups may lobby to in‡uence creditor rights to limit access to less established …rms. Wh...

School accountability programs operate under the premise that public schools have insufficient incentives to use resources efficiently. The positive or negative sanctions incorporated into the program are intended to provide these incentives. This paper evaluates the impact of incentives associated with the Federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 on school performance in North Carolina ...