Institutional arrangements to make public spending responsive to the poor: When intent meets political economy realities

Researchers and practitioners increasingly appreciate that accounting for the needs of ordinary citizens in developing countries supports the process of pro‐poor public resource allocation.We examine the existing evidence with regard to four institutional arrangements that endeavour to make public s...

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Main Authors: Mogues, Tewodaj, Erman, Alvina
Format: Journal Article
Language:Inglés
Published: Wiley 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/142466
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author Mogues, Tewodaj
Erman, Alvina
author_browse Erman, Alvina
Mogues, Tewodaj
author_facet Mogues, Tewodaj
Erman, Alvina
author_sort Mogues, Tewodaj
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Researchers and practitioners increasingly appreciate that accounting for the needs of ordinary citizens in developing countries supports the process of pro‐poor public resource allocation.We examine the existing evidence with regard to four institutional arrangements that endeavour to make public spending responsive to the needs of the poor by moving decision‐making procedures closer to the population. We term these “responsive institutional arrangements” (RIAs).We scrutinize the evidence in the literature on the functioning of each RIA against a framework that considers how countries’ broader governance environment shape governments’ incentives.The article concludes that RIAs can channel resources based on the preferences of the poor, but mainly if citizens have political space, and governments the incentives, to allocate resources in a pro‐poor fashion. Otherwise, RIAs often become tools of control for elites. However, the evidence suggests that higher inequality has an eroding effect on the functionality of RIAs. We argue that past optimism toward RIAs should be replaced by a more refined understanding.Policy implications include that RIAs can especially be fostered where there is a pre‐existing strong civil society, and political accountability. Achievable RIA improvement targets incentivize local government leaders to be responsive to ordinary individuals.
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spelling CGSpace1424662024-11-15T08:52:28Z Institutional arrangements to make public spending responsive to the poor: When intent meets political economy realities Mogues, Tewodaj Erman, Alvina expenditure community development public finance participatory approaches public investment political institutions targeting decentralization budgets public expenditure Researchers and practitioners increasingly appreciate that accounting for the needs of ordinary citizens in developing countries supports the process of pro‐poor public resource allocation.We examine the existing evidence with regard to four institutional arrangements that endeavour to make public spending responsive to the needs of the poor by moving decision‐making procedures closer to the population. We term these “responsive institutional arrangements” (RIAs).We scrutinize the evidence in the literature on the functioning of each RIA against a framework that considers how countries’ broader governance environment shape governments’ incentives.The article concludes that RIAs can channel resources based on the preferences of the poor, but mainly if citizens have political space, and governments the incentives, to allocate resources in a pro‐poor fashion. Otherwise, RIAs often become tools of control for elites. However, the evidence suggests that higher inequality has an eroding effect on the functionality of RIAs. We argue that past optimism toward RIAs should be replaced by a more refined understanding.Policy implications include that RIAs can especially be fostered where there is a pre‐existing strong civil society, and political accountability. Achievable RIA improvement targets incentivize local government leaders to be responsive to ordinary individuals. 2020-01-01 2024-05-22T12:10:32Z 2024-05-22T12:10:32Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/142466 en Limited Access Wiley Mogues, Tewodaj; and Erman, Alvina. 2020. Institutional arrangements to make public spending responsive to the poor: When intent meets political economy realities. Development Policy Review. 38(1): 100-123. https://doi.org/10.1111/dpr.12406
spellingShingle expenditure
community development
public finance
participatory approaches
public investment
political institutions
targeting
decentralization
budgets
public expenditure
Mogues, Tewodaj
Erman, Alvina
Institutional arrangements to make public spending responsive to the poor: When intent meets political economy realities
title Institutional arrangements to make public spending responsive to the poor: When intent meets political economy realities
title_full Institutional arrangements to make public spending responsive to the poor: When intent meets political economy realities
title_fullStr Institutional arrangements to make public spending responsive to the poor: When intent meets political economy realities
title_full_unstemmed Institutional arrangements to make public spending responsive to the poor: When intent meets political economy realities
title_short Institutional arrangements to make public spending responsive to the poor: When intent meets political economy realities
title_sort institutional arrangements to make public spending responsive to the poor when intent meets political economy realities
topic expenditure
community development
public finance
participatory approaches
public investment
political institutions
targeting
decentralization
budgets
public expenditure
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/142466
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