Marketizing education and health in developing countries ;miracle or mirage / edited by Christopher Colclough

In recent years many economists have argued that public sectors have become too large and that the market place, as opposed to the bureaucracy, provides the best mechanism for organising the production and distribution of most goods and services. These arguments have been influential in developing countries, where low economic growth and rising debt have required levels of public spending to be reassessed. They have also influenced resource allocation in the education and health sectors, which provide services crucial to the welfare of the poor. This book, using evidence from a large number of developing countries, assesses the impact of market reforms on the provision of education and health services. It examines the lessons from countries which have shifted away from financing education and health via standard tax instruments towards using fees, social and private insurance, community financing and/or private provision. It shows that approaches which seek merely to pass more of their costs to consumers perform less well than is often claimed and that improved cost-effectiveness of health and education systems requires far more than changes in the sources and mechanisms of obtaining finance.