Article history: Received 16 August 2011 Received in revised form 5 February 2013 Accepted 12 February 2013 Available online xxxx This article examines the quantitative effects of the Chinese fiscal system on the increasing regional income inequality in China, from 1978 to 2007. Fiscal decentralization is a multifaceted concept not likely to be captured by a single measure. This paper investiga...

In a wide-ranging look at many aspects of health care financing and delivery, the concepts of glasnost and perestroika are used as a framework for presenting ideas from the American system that may have value for European health care planners. These include more uniform approaches to data collection and cost reporting, patient outcome studies, evaluation of service and access standards, publica...

This paper integrates the distributive politics literature with the literature on decentralization by incorporating inter-regional project externalities into a standard model of distributive policy. A key finding is that the degree of uniformity (or "universalism'') of the provision of regional projects is endogenous, and depends on the strength of the externality. The welfare benefits of decen...

Construindo o " pacto de gestão " no SUS: da descentralização tutelada à gestão em rede Abstract Over time, the implementation of Bra-zil's National Health System (SUS) has encountered management problems. Initially, steadily rising pressures calling for State reform and trim-mer costs affect the universal healthcare that is the purpose of this system. Conflicts then flare up between the decent...

BACKGROUND A critical challenge in the health sector in developing countries is to ensure the quality and effectiveness of surveillance and public health response in an environment of decentralization. In Georgia, a country where there has been extensive decentralization of public health responsibilities over the last decade, an intervention was recently piloted to strengthen district-level loc...

a r t i c l e i n f o The decentralization of resource property rights has become an increasingly popular policy in many natural resource-dependent communities of the developing world. However, the success of this policy approach depends on both collective action and institutionalization. It is therefore important to evaluate collective action and insti-tutionalization where the process of prop...

For decades, discussions on human resources in health have ended with a ritual call for more and better manpower planning. But this traditional wisdom has been discredited by unrealistic or vague targets, based all too often on information that was inaccurate, outdated and unrelated to the policy agenda. Nevertheless, in as labourintensive a domain as delivering health care, reform does entail ...

This paper highlights key considerations for policymakers in ministries of health and decision makers from the international donor community for prioritizing supply chain management throughout the health reform process—primarily when decentralizing and/or integrating the public health system. From a thorough compilation of experiences in the Latin American and Caribbean region, this paper synth...

by moving government closer to the people, it brings public sector activities and decisions in line with popular preferences. Yet, in practice, the civil service—a critical component of government— rarely enters the decision calculus of decentralization design. The civil service is often recognized as an afterthought rather than seen as essential to successful decentralization. This is lamentab...