Does Greater Accountability Improve the Quality of Public Service Delivery? Evidence from Uganda

Abstract

It is now widely realized that in many developing countries, the low quality of public services and governance can limit the scope for poverty reduction and growth. Empirical micro-level evidence on the scope for improved accountability to help reduce corruption and improve the quality with which critical public services are provided is, however, limited. Using a large data set from Uganda to address this issue, we find that household knowledge on how to report inappropriate behavior by bureaucrats and unsatisfactory quality of services does help to not only reduce the incidence of corruption but is also associated with significant improvements in service quality.