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An honest and competent c ...
May 1997 An honest and competent civil service is essential for public sector efficiency and economic development. As a complex institutional challenge, civil service reform is worth doing only if it is done well. But even when circumstances are not ripe for genuine reform, governments and development institutions should keep a watching brief on civil service issues - recalling that the slide of many of today's failed states began, in part, with the degradation of their civil service. Schiavo-Campo, de Tommaso, and Mukherjee try to replace myths about government pay and employment with reliable facts from a survey of international, national, and primary sources for about 100 countries in the early 1990s. The study also outlines the general nature of civil service problems in the different regions. Nevertheless, while the facts are useful to flag possible problems and initiate a dialogue, recommendations for reform must be based on country-specific analysis. Globally, government employment is negatively associated with wages, and positively with the fiscal deficit (although the availability of financing is more important) and with per capita income (confirming Wagner's Law). But the global results stem almost entirely from strong results for Africa and Latin America. Civil service reform has suffered in the past from an overemphasis on retrenchment for fiscal reasons. Its true objective, for each country, is to achieve a civil service of the size and skill-mix, incentives, professional ethos, and accountability needed to provide public goods, help formulate and enforce the rules, and intervene to remedy market failures - as these government roles happen to be defined in the country in question. Civil service reform can begin with various diagnostic and fact-finding activities. The key measures concern rightsizing, incentives, and accountability. These are all relative notions: the right size of the workforce depends on the roles assigned to government; wage adequacy depends on private compensation levels; and strengthening of accountability must define accountability for what and to whom. When retrenchment is warranted, it must be carried out with great care to avoid skill reduction, demoralization, and lower-quality service. Adequate compensation is a must, and wage compression is to be avoided. But performance bonuses, popular in some advanced countries, have been only marginally effective in improving performance in developing countries, even in the private sector. And they can be dangerous in countries with ethnic, clan, or religious conflicts. Finally, improvements in accountability will most often require greater external openness and systematic feedback from service users. This paper - a joint product of the Office of the Chief Economist and Senior Vice President, Development Economics, and Europe and Central Asia, and Middle East and North Africa Technical Department, Public Sector Management and Information Technology Team - was produced as a background paper for World Development Report 1997 on the role of the state in a changing world.
August 1997 Detailed statistical and econometric evidence on government employment and pay, both global and regional. This paper complements a separate study in this Series (Government Employment and Pay: A Global and Regional Perspective, Policy Research Working Paper 1771, May 1997) by providing the detailed statistical and econometric evidence on which that separate study is based. Schiavo-Campo, de Tommaso, and Mukherjee briefly summarize the key findings of the earlier paper for the reader's convenience and to permit this paper to stand alone. However, the purpose of the paper is to provide the country-by-country statistics. The reader is referred to the companion paper for a description and analysis of the main findings. This paper-a joint product of the Office of the Chief Economist and Senior Vice President, Development Economics, and Europe and Central Asia, and Middle East and North Africa Technical Department, Public Sector Management and Information Technology Team-was produced as a background paper for World Development Report 1997 on the role of the state in a changing world.
How many people are employed by the government? How many are employed by the central government compared with the state and local authorities? How many are employed in public enterprise? How much are they all paid? How much are they paid relative to each other, or relative to the private sector? Such questions interest people in general and economists and policymakers in particular; yet it is remarkable how little information is readily accessible on thes topics.
Analyzes the issues affecting income security for the elderly in both developing and industrial nations. Systems providing financial security for the old are under increasing strain throughout the world. Changing demographics have led to an increased proportion of old people in the general population. Traditional means of support for the old, such as extended families, are weakening. Meanwhile, formal systems, such as government-backed pensions, have proven unstable. For these reasons economists, policymakers, and government officials are exploring ways to address such issues as: *How to ensure financial security for the old and the best ways of paying for such security *The roles of the public and private sectors when systems are used to enhance rather than detract from economic growth. This study, the first comprehensive and global examination of old age security, addresses such issues. It identifies three functions of old age financial security programs--redistribution, saving, and insurance. It evaluates the policy options for meeting these functions using two criteria: their impact on the aged and their impact on the economy as a whole. The study suggests that financial security for the old and economic growth would be better served if governments relied on three systems: 1) A publicly managed system with mandatory participation and the limited goal of reducing poverty among the old 2) A privately managed mandatory savings system 3) A voluntary savings system. These three systems would ensure against the many risks of old age. The study concludes that a combination of different income security policies is more effective than any single approach and that all countries should begin planning for their aging populations now. A Copublication of the World Bank and Oxford University Press.
Government compensation and employment policies are important for the efficient delivery of public services which are crucial for the functioning of economies and the general prosperity of societies. On average, spending on the wage bill absorbs around one-fifth of total spending. Cross-country variation in wage spending reflects, in part, national choices about the government’s role in priority sectors, as well as variations in the level of economic development and resource constraints.
Excessive spending on public employment has contributed significantly to fiscal crises in many developing nations. Less visible, but also important for development, is the impact of pay and employment policies on government performance.
Analysis of policies for managing public sector wage bills in the Middle East and Central Asia region. While some work has been done recently at the Fund on issues related to government employment and compensation, to our knowledge, this is the first study to systematically examine, with a focus on the Middle East and Central Asia region, the recent trends and drivers of public wage bills in the region and to identify key policy implications.