IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/idb/brikps/6135.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Social Services Viewed Through New Lenses: Agency Problems in Education and Health in Latin America

Author

Listed:
  • Savedoff, William D.

Abstract

Latin America spends large amounts of resources on social services, yet its life expectancy and education levels are low compared to other regions with similar levels of income. A key reason is the inherent difficulty of making social services produce efficiently in response to demands and needs. This working paper shows how improving the organization of these service systems can make a significant difference in health conditions and student learning. A general framework applying the lessons of theories of the firm to the particularities of social services is developed, followed by a summary of case studies which assess the impact of organization on performance in education and in health. The paper shows that the relationships and rules followed by governments, service providers, and consumers can mean the difference between success and failure. It also describes a wealth of approaches that point toward better ways of organizing social services and ultimately improving health and education in the region.

Suggested Citation

  • Savedoff, William D., 1997. "Social Services Viewed Through New Lenses: Agency Problems in Education and Health in Latin America," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 6135, Inter-American Development Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:idb:brikps:6135
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://publications.iadb.org/publications/english/document/Social-Services-Viewed-Through-New-Lenses-Agency-Problems-in-Education-and-Health-in-Latin-America.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Antonio Estache & J. Cremer & Paul Seabright, 1996. "Decentralizing Public Services: What can we learn from the Theory of the Firm?," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/44016, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    2. Caroline Minter Hoxby, 1996. "How Teachers' Unions Affect Education Production," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 111(3), pages 671-718.
    3. Gaynor, Martin, 1994. "Issues in the Industrial Organization of the Market for Physician Services," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 3(1), pages 211-255, Spring.
    4. Randall P. Ellis & Thomas G. McGuire, 1993. "Supply-Side and Demand-Side Cost Sharing in Health Care," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 7(4), pages 135-151, Fall.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mariano Tommasi & Silvana Tenreyro, 2001. "Comments on Dani Rodrik's "Why Is There So Much Economic Insecurity in Latin America?"," Working Papers 28, Universidad de San Andres, Departamento de Economia, revised Mar 2001.
    2. Alejandra Mizala & Pablo González & Pilar Romaguera & Andrea Guzman, 2000. "Los maestros en Chile: Carreras e Incentivos," Research Department Publications 3102, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    3. Mizala, Alejandra & Romaguera, Pilar, 2003. "El Sistema Nacional de Evaluación del Desempeño Docente (SNED) en Chile," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 2397, Inter-American Development Bank.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. William D. Savedoff, 1997. "Social Services Viewed Through New Lenses: Agency Problems in Education and Health in Latin America," Research Department Publications 3017, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    2. Miller, Nolan, 2004. "Market Structure, Commitment, and Treatment Incentives in Health Care," Working Paper Series rwp04-007, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    3. Franz Benstetter & Achim Wambach, 2001. "Strategic Interaction in the Market for Physician Services: The Treadmill Effect in a Fixed Budget System," CESifo Working Paper Series 427, CESifo.
    4. Benstetter, Franz & Wambach, Achim, 2006. "The treadmill effect in a fixed budget system," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 146-169, January.
    5. Jelovac, Izabela & Macho-Stadler, Ines, 2002. "Comparing organizational structures in health services," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 49(4), pages 501-522, December.
    6. Vislie, Jon, 2009. "Incentive Contracts for Public Health Care Provision under Adverse Selection and Moral Hazard," HERO Online Working Paper Series 2001:6, University of Oslo, Health Economics Research Programme.
    7. Udo Schneider, 2004. "Asymmetric Information and the Demand for Health Care – the Case of Double Moral Hazard," Schmollers Jahrbuch : Journal of Applied Social Science Studies / Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, vol. 124(2), pages 233-256.
    8. Miller, Nolan H., 2006. "Insurer-provider integration, credible commitment, and managed-care backlash," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 861-876, September.
    9. Izabela Jelovac, 2001. "Physicians' payment contracts, treatment decisions and diagnosis accuracy," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 10(1), pages 9-25, January.
    10. Barrow, Lisa & Rouse, Cecilia Elena, 2004. "Using market valuation to assess public school spending," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(9-10), pages 1747-1769, August.
    11. Gijs Roelofs & Daniel Vuuren, 2017. "The Decentralization of Social Assistance and the Rise of Disability Insurance Enrolment," De Economist, Springer, vol. 165(1), pages 1-21, March.
    12. Trottmann, Maria & Zweifel, Peter & Beck, Konstantin, 2012. "Supply-side and demand-side cost sharing in deregulated social health insurance: Which is more effective?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 231-242.
    13. Sverre Grepperud, 2005. "Medical Errors: Mandatory Reporting, Voluntary Reporting, or Both?," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 99-112, July.
    14. Seungchul Lee & Robert Rosenman, 2013. "Reimbursement and Investment: Prospective Payment and For-Profit Hospitals’ Market Share," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 13(4), pages 503-518, December.
    15. Baker, Michael & Halberstam, Yosh & Kroft, Kory & Mas, Alexandre & Messacar, Derek, 2024. "The impact of unions on wages in the public sector: Evidence from higher education," CLEF Working Paper Series 67, Canadian Labour Economics Forum (CLEF), University of Waterloo.
    16. Terry M. Moe, 2009. "Collective Bargaining and The Performance of the Public Schools," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 53(1), pages 156-174, January.
    17. Marisa Elena Domino & David S. Salkever, 2003. "Price elasticity and pharmaceutical selection: the influence of managed care," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 12(7), pages 565-586, July.
    18. Kevin E. Pflum, 2015. "Physician Incentives and Treatment Choice," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(4), pages 712-751, October.
    19. Izabela Jelovac & Philippe Polomé, 2017. "Incentives to patients versus incentives to health care providers: The users' perspective," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(12), pages 319-331, December.
    20. Sandra Rodriguez A., 2015. "Poder de monopsonio en el mercado de aseguramiento en salud en Colombia," Revista de Economía del Caribe 14779, Universidad del Norte.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:idb:brikps:6135. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Felipe Herrera Library (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iadbbus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.