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The public sector in the Caribbean : issues and reform options

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  • Swaroop, Vinaya

Abstract

The public sector's performance in the Caribbean varies, in reducing poverty and in creating an enabling environment for growth. Barbados and the Bahamas have been the high performers, Guyana and the Dominican Republic have been sluggish, and the other Caribbean countries fall in between. In the Caribbean region, the public sector is now the predominant provider of tertiary education and health services (university education and hospital-based curative care), which mainly benefit the nonpoor. Attempts must be made to recover costs from high-income users and use that revenue to improve the quality and quantity (as appropriate) of basic services. Lessons from experience suggest that most Caribbean countries need to encourage the private sector to participate more in providing infrastructure and need to provide a better regulatory framework. The good news: this is already taking place in many countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Swaroop, Vinaya, 1996. "The public sector in the Caribbean : issues and reform options," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1609, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:1609
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Bowe, Anica G., 2015. "The development of education indicators for measuring quality in the English-speaking Caribbean: How far have we come?," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 31-46.
    2. Roland Craigwell & Danielle Bynoe & Shane Lowe, 2012. "The effectiveness of government expenditure on education and health care in the Caribbean," International Journal of Development Issues, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 11(1), pages 4-18, April.
    3. John Gafar, 2006. "The benefit-incidence of public spending: the Caribbean experience," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(4), pages 449-468.
    4. Biswajit Maitra & C.K. Mukhopadhyay, 2012. "Public spending on education, health care and economic growth in selected countries of Asia and the Pacific," Asia-Pacific Development Journal, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), vol. 19(2), pages 19-48, December.

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