IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/wbrobs/v13y1998i1p103-21.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Public Sector Reform in New Zealand and Its Relevance to Developing Countries

Author

Listed:
  • Bale, Malcolm
  • Dale, Tony

Abstract

Does New Zealand's success story have lessons for developing countries contemplating public sector reform? That question usually elicits one of two reactions, both inadvisable in the authors' view. The first reaction is to be impressed with the efficacy of the reforms and conclude that they should be adopted uncritically in other countries. The second reaction is that the special conditions existing in New Zealand are such that none of its reform experience is relevant to others. The authors take a middle position, maintaining that poorer countries can indeed extrapolate from the experience of their higher income neighbor despite the different conditions under which they have to operate. New Zealand's comprehensive overhaul of its public sector affords both general principles and specific elements relevant to countries looking to improve the quality, efficiency, and cost effectiveness of their public service sectors, and a careful analysis of those reforms can ascertain what might be transferable and what principles might apply. Copyright 1998 by Oxford University Press.

Suggested Citation

  • Bale, Malcolm & Dale, Tony, 1998. "Public Sector Reform in New Zealand and Its Relevance to Developing Countries," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 13(1), pages 103-121, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:wbrobs:v:13:y:1998:i:1:p:103-21
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.worldbank.org/research/journals/wbro/obsfeb98/pdf/article6.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Richard A. Posner, 1974. "Theories of Economic Regulation," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 5(2), pages 335-358, Autumn.
    2. Bendor, Jonathan, 1988. "Formal Models of Bureaucracy," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 18(3), pages 353-395, July.
    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. Rauch, James E. & Evans, Peter B., 2000. "Bureaucratic structure and bureaucratic performance in less developed countries," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(1), pages 49-71, January.
    2. Wallis, Joe & Dollery, Brian, 2001. "Government Failure, Social Capital and the Appropriateness of the New Zealand Model for Public Sector Reform in Developing Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 245-263, February.
    3. Murray Petrie & David Webber, 2001. "Review of Evidence on Broad Outcome of Public Sector Management Regime," Treasury Working Paper Series 01/06, New Zealand Treasury.
    4. Barry Eichengreen & Ugo Panizza, 2016. "A surplus of ambition: can Europe rely on large primary surpluses to solve its debt problem?," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 31(85), pages 5-49.
    5. Willy McCourt, 2007. "Impartiality through bureaucracy? A Sri Lankan approach to managing values," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(3), pages 429-442.
    6. John Micklewright, 2003. "Child Poverty in English-Speaking Countries," Papers inwopa03/25, Innocenti Working Papers, revised 2003.
    7. Adrian Fozzard & Mick Foster, 2001. "Changing Approaches to Public Expenditure Management in Low-Income Aid Dependent Countries," WIDER Working Paper Series DP2001-107, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    8. Etienne Nel & Teresa Stevenson, 2014. "The catalysts of small town economic development in a free market economy: A case study of New Zealand," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 29(4-5), pages 486-502, June.
    9. Alison J. Blaiklock & Cynthia A. Kiro & Michael Belgrave & Will Low & Eileen Davenport & Ian B. Hassall, 2002. "When the Invisible Hand Rocks the Cradle: New Zealand children in a time of change," Papers inwopa02/20, Innocenti Working Papers.
    10. Mccourt, Willy, 2012. "Can Top-Down and Bottom-Up be Reconciled? Electoral Competition and Service Delivery in Malaysia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(11), pages 2329-2341.
    11. Khaleghian, Peyvand & Gupta, Monica Das, 2005. "Public management and the essential public health functions," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(7), pages 1083-1099, July.
    12. Johnson, Robin W., 2000. "The Role of Institutions in Policy Formation and Delivery," 2000 Conference, August 13-18, 2000, Berlin, Germany 197206, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    13. Willy McCourt, 2018. "Towards “cognitively complex” problem‐solving: Six models of public service reform," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 36(S2), pages 748-768, September.
    14. repec:thr:techub:10026:y:2021:i:1:p:576-596 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Hüttl, Antónia & Surányi, Bálint & Vita, László, 1998. "A gazdasági növekedés és fejlettség paradoxona a kelet-közép-európai átmenetben [The paradox of economic growth and development level in the East-Central-European transition]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(11), pages 973-988.
    16. Panagiota Xanthopoulou & Iosif Plimakis, 2021. "From New Public Management to Public Sector Management Reforms during the pandemic. The effects of Covid-19 on public management reforms and effectiveness," Technium Social Sciences Journal, Technium Science, vol. 26(1), pages 576-596, Decembrie.
    17. McCourt, Willy, 2013. "Models of public service reform : a problem-solving approach," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6428, The World Bank.
    18. Jiajing Sun & Michael Cole & Zhiyuan Huang & Shouyang Wang, 2019. "Chinese leadership: Provincial perspectives on promotion and performance," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 37(4), pages 750-772, June.
    19. Mr. Ian Lienert & Mr. Feridoun Sarraf, 2001. "Systemic Weaknesses of Budget Management in Anglophone Africa," IMF Working Papers 2001/211, International Monetary Fund.
    20. Ke-Young Chu, 2004. "A Model of a Rule of Law and a Rule of Man: Implications for the Design of Institutions," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2004-65, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    21. Adrian Fozzard & Mick Foster, 2010. "Changing Approaches to Public Expenditure Management in Low-income Aid Dependent Countries," Working Papers id:3145, eSocialSciences.

    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. Roland Vaubel, 2008. "The political economy of labor market regulation by the European Union," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 3(4), pages 435-465, December.
    2. Magnus Söderberg, 2008. "Uncertainty and regulatory outcome in the Swedish electricity distribution sector," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 79-94, February.
    3. Michael Beenstock, 2010. "Regulatory Failure in the Subprime Crisis," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 147-150, February.
    4. Simshauser, Paul, 2024. "On static vs. dynamic line ratings in renewable energy zones," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    5. Ojo, Marianne, 2006. "The Role of External Auditors and International Accounting Bodies in Financial Regulation and Supervision," MPRA Paper 354, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Jul 2006.
    6. Sophie Harnay, 2023. "Richard A. Posner: From Public Choice Theory to Economic Analysis of Law (1969-1973)," Working Papers AFED 23-02, Association Francaise d'Economie du Droit (AFED).
    7. Mountain, Bruce R., 2019. "Ownership, regulation, and financial disparity: The case of electricity distribution in Australia," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 1-1.
    8. Lehr, William & Sicker, Douglas, 2017. "Communications Act 2021," 28th European Regional ITS Conference, Passau 2017 169478, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    9. Ando, Amy, 1998. "Delay on the Path to the Endangered Species List: Do Costs and Benefits Matter," RFF Working Paper Series dp-97-43-rev, Resources for the Future.
    10. Parker, David, 2001. "Economic Regulation: A Preliminary Literature Review and Summary of Research Questions Arising," Centre on Regulation and Competition (CRC) Working papers 30616, University of Manchester, Institute for Development Policy and Management (IDPM).
    11. William C. Mitchell, 1990. "Interest Groups: Economic Perspectives and Contributions," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 2(1), pages 85-108, January.
    12. Phares, Jonathan & Dobrzykowski, David D. & Prohofsky, Jodi, 2021. "How policy is shaping the macro healthcare delivery supply chain: The emergence of a new tier of retail medical clinics," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 64(3), pages 333-345.
    13. Stephen Hansen & Michael McMahon, 2016. "First Impressions Matter: Signalling as a Source of Policy Dynamics," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 83(4), pages 1645-1672.
    14. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/8527 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Oleh Pasko, 2018. "Theories of Regulation in the Context of Modern Practice of Accounting Regulation," Oblik i finansi, Institute of Accounting and Finance, issue 2, pages 37-46, June.
    16. Kherallah, Mylène & Kirsten, Johann, 2001. "The new institutional economics," MSSD discussion papers 41, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    17. Philip Brown & Ann Tarca, 2007. "Achieving High Quality, Comparable Financial Reporting: A Review of Independent Enforcement Bodies in Australia and the United Kingdom," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 43(4), pages 438-473, December.
    18. Dallas Burtraw & William Shobe, 2008. "State and Local Climate Policy under a National Emissions Floor," Working Papers 2008-05, Center for Economic and Policy Studies.
    19. Zheying Wu & Robert Salomon, 2017. "Deconstructing the liability of foreignness: Regulatory enforcement actions against foreign banks," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 48(7), pages 837-861, September.
    20. David Procházka, 2012. "Financial Conditions and Transparency of the Czech Professional Football Clubs," Prague Economic Papers, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2012(4), pages 504-521.
    21. Christopher Costello & Corbett A. Grainger, 2018. "Property Rights, Regulatory Capture, and Exploitation of Natural Resources," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 5(2), pages 441-479.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:oup:wbrobs:v:13:y:1998:i:1:p:103-21. 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: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/wrldbus.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.