This study estimates the effects of the post-Katrina school reforms on the operating expenditures of New Orleans’ publicly funded schools. We compare all the city’s publicly funded schools to a group of Louisiana school districts that had similar spending patterns before the New Orleans reforms shifted the city to a charter-driven system. We also show changes for both groups before and after th...

This essay examines some outcomes of two decades of market oriented reforms in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU). In general, economic performance, measured by growth of per capita incomes, has not been encouraging, despite far reaching reforms, including privatization, liberalization, and deep regional integration. Social indicators suggest that poverty reduction has not bee...

Equity was a core value in the Alma Ata declaration on PHC. However, the interpretation of equity varied and its application became difficult. Equity goals and objectives have often been rhetoric rather than practical. Policy reforms since Alma Ata have been dominated by the neo-liberal economic ideology, which does not include equity as its core value. After 25 years, reforms such as the essen...

This thesis aims to review and contribute to the literature on land reform and economic development. It does so by evaluating the impact of land reforms in India on agricultural modernization in twelve states over the years 1961-1987. The main findings are although there is limited evidence of the successful implementation of land reforms, adoption of tenancy reforms seems to have a significant...

European Union countries have implemented widespread reforms to product markets in order to stimulate competition, innovation and economic growth. We provide empirical evidence that the reforms carried out under the EU Single Market Programme (SMP) were associated with increased product market competition, as measured by a reduction in average profitability, and with a subsequent increase in in...

The paper examines social security (public pension) reforms in which the programme is partially shifted from a public unfunded basis to a private, prefunded, basis. It focuses on reforms where individuals have a choice in switching from public funded to private unfunded programmes (as in the ‘contracting out’ scheme in the UK), or where some individuals are forced to join the funded scheme, or ...

The past two decades have witnessed a growing interest for performance management and budgeting reforms in response to louder public demands for government accountability in industrial countries. These reforms are intended to transform public budgeting systems from inputs control to an output and/or outcome focus in the interest of improving operational efficiency and promoting results-oriented...