IMPACT OF DECENTRALIZATION REFORMS IN PAKISTAN ON SERVICE DELIVERY—AN EMPIRICAL STUDY
| Date | 01 August 2011 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.591 |
| Author | Ghazia Aslam,Serdar Yilmaz |
| Published date | 01 August 2011 |
IMPACT OF DECENTRALIZATION REFORMS IN PAKISTAN ON
SERVICE DELIVERY—AN EMPIRICAL STUDY
y
GHAZIA ASLAM AND SERDAR YILMAZ*
World Bank, USA
SUMMARY
By bringing decision making closer to people, decentralization is expected to improve governance and service delivery
outcomes. Yet, the empirical evidenceon the impact of decentralization on macroeconomic performance and public sector size
presents a mixed picture. However,the findings of cross-country studies in the literature are sensitive to the way decentralization
is defined, and how its extent and impact are measured. This article avoids the unwanted effects of incomparability and
aggregation in cross-country analysis. We use a unique panel data set from 183 villages in Pakistan to analyze the impact of
decentralization reforms implemented in 2001 on the provision of services— street paving, construction of water canals,
sanitation sewer lines, and school facilities. Our results show that the magnitude of provision of all services increased
significantly following decentralization reforms. We further show that the four services are impacted differently and service
delivery improvement is not uniform, but not in ways that conform to the hypotheses of patronage theory. Copyright #2011
John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
key words— decentralization; local governance; service delivery; Pakistan
INTRODUCTION
Decentralization has become the cornerstone of development reforms in many countries. The normative rationale
for decentralization is deeply rooted in the political economy argument that decentralization leads to better service
delivery.
1
Despite this widespread belief in the benefits of decentralization, empirical evidence of such effects in
macro outcomes are notoriously hard to show. Ebel and Yilmaz (2002) and Rodden (2004) show that the empirical
findings are sensitive to the way decentralization is defined, and how its extent and impact are measured. Cross-country
analysis is the norm in the literature as time series data on smaller units within countries are not available. Thus, often
countries that are not similar are forced into a single sample that is large enough for researchers to make econometrically
reliable inferences (Rodden, 2004), but the result is usually no useful inference that could deepen our understanding.
Conspicuously missing from the list of impact variables is service delivery— an important motivation behind
decentralization reforms. Consequently, ‘the most discernible Leitmotiv in these studies [empirical studies of
decentralization] is a growing disappointment with decentralization and federalism, especially among developing
countries’ (Rodden, 2004: p. 481).
This article uses a sample from a single country to quantify the effects of decentralization reforms on service
delivery. Our comprehensive panel data on service delivery in one country—Pakistan —allows us to make
inferences without the unwanted effects of incomparability and aggregation in cross-sectional data. The data set
is large in terms of number of unit of analysis (183 villages) and time period (6 years each before and after
public administration and development
Public Admin. Dev. 31, 159–171 (2011)
Published online 11 January 2011 in Wiley Online Library
(wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/pad.591
*Correspondence to: S. Yilmaz, Africa Public Sector Reform and Capacity Development, World Bank, 1818 H Street, NW, WashingtonD.C.
20433, USA. E-mail: syilmaz@worldbank.org
y
The findings, interpretations, and conclusions are entirely those of authors, and do not represent the views of the World Bank, its executive
directors, or the countries they represent.
1
For example, see Tiebout (1956), Oates (1972), Cremer et al. (1996), Oates (1997), Raff and Wilson(1997), Bucovestsky et al. (1998), Oates
(1999), and Mueller (2006).
Copyright #2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
To continue reading
Request your trial