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Public Sector Reform in New Zealand and Its Relevance to Developing Countries

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  • Bale, Malcolm
  • Dale, Tony

Abstract

Does New Zealand's success story have lessons for developing countries contemplating public sector reform? That question usually elicits one of two reactions, both inadvisable in the authors' view. The first reaction is to be impressed with the efficacy of the reforms and conclude that they should be adopted uncritically in other countries. The second reaction is that the special conditions existing in New Zealand are such that none of its reform experience is relevant to others. The authors take a middle position, maintaining that poorer countries can indeed extrapolate from the experience of their higher income neighbor despite the different conditions under which they have to operate. New Zealand's comprehensive overhaul of its public sector affords both general principles and specific elements relevant to countries looking to improve the quality, efficiency, and cost effectiveness of their public service sectors, and a careful analysis of those reforms can ascertain what might be transferable and what principles might apply. Copyright 1998 by Oxford University Press.

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  • Bale, Malcolm & Dale, Tony, 1998. "Public Sector Reform in New Zealand and Its Relevance to Developing Countries," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 13(1), pages 103-121, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:wbrobs:v:13:y:1998:i:1:p:103-21
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    File URL: http://www.worldbank.org/research/journals/wbro/obsfeb98/pdf/article6.pdf
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    Cited by:

    1. Rauch, James E. & Evans, Peter B., 2000. "Bureaucratic structure and bureaucratic performance in less developed countries," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(1), pages 49-71, January.
    2. John Micklewright, 2003. "Child Poverty in English-Speaking Countries," Papers inwopa03/25, Innocenti Working Papers, revised 2003.
    3. Hüttl, Antónia & Surányi, Bálint & Vita, László, 1998. "A gazdasági növekedés és fejlettség paradoxona a kelet-közép-európai átmenetben [The paradox of economic growth and development level in the East-Central-European transition]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(11), pages 973-988.
    4. Panagiota Xanthopoulou & Iosif Plimakis, 2021. "From New Public Management to Public Sector Management Reforms during the pandemic. The effects of Covid-19 on public management reforms and effectiveness," Technium Social Sciences Journal, Technium Science, vol. 26(1), pages 576-596, Decembrie.
    5. Wallis, Joe & Dollery, Brian, 2001. "Government Failure, Social Capital and the Appropriateness of the New Zealand Model for Public Sector Reform in Developing Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 245-263, February.
    6. Murray Petrie & David Webber, 2001. "Review of Evidence on Broad Outcome of Public Sector Management Regime," Treasury Working Paper Series 01/06, New Zealand Treasury.
    7. Barry Eichengreen & Ugo Panizza, 2016. "A surplus of ambition: can Europe rely on large primary surpluses to solve its debt problem?," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 31(85), pages 5-49.
    8. Willy McCourt, 2007. "Impartiality through bureaucracy? A Sri Lankan approach to managing values," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(3), pages 429-442.
    9. McCourt, Willy, 2013. "Models of public service reform : a problem-solving approach," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6428, The World Bank.
    10. Adrian Fozzard & Mick Foster, 2001. "Changing Approaches to Public Expenditure Management in Low-Income Aid Dependent Countries," WIDER Working Paper Series DP2001-107, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    11. Khaleghian, Peyvand & Gupta, Monica Das, 2005. "Public management and the essential public health functions," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(7), pages 1083-1099, July.
    12. Jiajing Sun & Michael Cole & Zhiyuan Huang & Shouyang Wang, 2019. "Chinese leadership: Provincial perspectives on promotion and performance," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 37(4), pages 750-772, June.
    13. Etienne Nel & Teresa Stevenson, 2014. "The catalysts of small town economic development in a free market economy: A case study of New Zealand," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 29(4-5), pages 486-502, June.
    14. Alison J. Blaiklock & Cynthia A. Kiro & Michael Belgrave & Will Low & Eileen Davenport & Ian B. Hassall, 2002. "When the Invisible Hand Rocks the Cradle: New Zealand children in a time of change," Papers inwopa02/20, Innocenti Working Papers.
    15. Mccourt, Willy, 2012. "Can Top-Down and Bottom-Up be Reconciled? Electoral Competition and Service Delivery in Malaysia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(11), pages 2329-2341.
    16. Mr. Ian Lienert & Mr. Feridoun Sarraf, 2001. "Systemic Weaknesses of Budget Management in Anglophone Africa," IMF Working Papers 2001/211, International Monetary Fund.
    17. Johnson, Robin W., 2000. "The Role of Institutions in Policy Formation and Delivery," 2000 Conference, August 13-18, 2000, Berlin, Germany 197206, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    18. Willy McCourt, 2018. "Towards “cognitively complex” problem‐solving: Six models of public service reform," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 36(S2), pages 748-768, September.
    19. Ke-Young Chu, 2004. "A Model of a Rule of Law and a Rule of Man: Implications for the Design of Institutions," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2004-65, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    20. Adrian Fozzard & Mick Foster, 2010. "Changing Approaches to Public Expenditure Management in Low-income Aid Dependent Countries," Working Papers id:3145, eSocialSciences.

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