IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/6585.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Does the semi-autonomous agency model function in a low-governance environment ? the case of the road development agency in Zambia

Author

Listed:
  • Raballand, Gael
  • Bridges, Kate
  • Beuran, Monica
  • Sacks, Audrey

Abstract

This paper uses Zambia as a case study to assess empirically whether political interference in a low-governance environment has diminished in the past years as expected after a semi-autonomous agency model was set up ten years ago. The road sector in Zambia has experienced some significant developments since then. The paper uses data on contract from 2008 to 2011 and analyses a number of key trends related to Road Development Agency governance and staffing dynamics as well as procurement and project selection within the institution. The main findings indicate that, after some years of implementation of these reforms, there is reason to question whether the model of semi-autonomous agency enables road management to be shielded from political interference. Zambia may be an isolated case but, so far, this model does not seem to have been able to decrease political interference in the selection or supervision of projects and there seems to have been an increased lack of accountability of civil servants working in this sector.

Suggested Citation

  • Raballand, Gael & Bridges, Kate & Beuran, Monica & Sacks, Audrey, 2013. "Does the semi-autonomous agency model function in a low-governance environment ? the case of the road development agency in Zambia," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6585, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6585
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2013/08/27/000158349_20130827101929/Rendered/PDF/WPS6585.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ken Gwilliam & Ajay Kumar, 2003. "How Effective Are Second-Generation Road Funds? A Preliminary Appraisal," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 18(1), pages 113-128.
    2. Bent Flyvbjerg, 2009. "Survival of the unfittest: why the worst infrastructure gets built--and what we can do about it," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 25(3), pages 344-367, Autumn.
    3. Daniel Benitez & Antonio Estache & Tina Søreide, 2012. "Infrastructure policy and governance failures," CMI Working Papers 5, CMI (Chr. Michelsen Institute), Bergen, Norway.
    4. Raballand, Gael & Kunaka, Charles & Giersing, Bo, 2008. "The impact of regional liberalization and harmonization in road transport services : a focus on Zambia and lessons for landlocked countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4482, The World Bank.
    5. World Bank, 2009. "Geography in Motion: World Development Report 2009 (excerpt)," Transnational Corporations Review, Ottawa United Learning Academy, vol. 1(3), pages 40-46, September.
    6. McCleary, William, 1989. "Earmarking government revenues : does it work ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 322, The World Bank.
    7. World Bank, 2009. "World Development Report 2009," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 5991, August.
    8. Melvin Ayogu, 1999. "Before Prebendalism: A Positive Analysis of Core Infrastructure Investment in a Developing Fiscal Federalism," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 11(2), pages 169-198.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Athukorala, Prema-chandra & Narayanan, Suresh, 2018. "Economic corridors and regional development: The Malaysian experience," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 1-14.
    2. Newburry, William & Gardberg, Naomi A. & Sanchez, Juan I., 2014. "Employer Attractiveness in Latin America: The Association Among Foreignness, Internationalization and Talent Recruitment," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 327-344.
    3. Roberto Ganau & Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, 2022. "Does urban concentration matter for changes in country economic performance?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(6), pages 1275-1299, May.
    4. Brülhart, Marius & Desmet, Klaus & Klinke, Gian-Paolo, 2020. "The shrinking advantage of market potential," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    5. Carol Newman & John Page, 2017. "Industrial clusters: The case for Special Economic Zones in Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series 015, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    6. Pierre-Philippe Combes & Clément Gorin & Shohei Nakamura & Mark Roberts & Benjamin Stewart, 2023. "An Anatomy of Urbanization in Sub-Saharan Africa," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-04345529, HAL.
    7. Valentin Cojanu, 2012. "Beyond the ‘Nation State’: the Quest for New Territorial Paradigms in an Interconnected World Economy," Transition Studies Review, Springer;Central Eastern European University Network (CEEUN), vol. 18(3), pages 498-511, March.
    8. Christian Düben & Melanie Krause, 2021. "Population, light, and the size distribution of cities," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(1), pages 189-211, January.
    9. Frick, Susanne A. & Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés, 2018. "Change in urban concentration and economic growth," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 156-170.
    10. Berdegué, Julio A. & Soloaga, Isidro, 2018. "Small and medium cities and development of Mexican rural areas," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 277-288.
    11. Peter Lloyd, 2011. "Free Trade And Growth In The World Economy," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 56(03), pages 291-306.
    12. Hiroshi Kitamura & Noriaki Matsushima & Misato Sato, 2023. "Which is better for durable goods producers, exclusive or open supply chain?," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 158-176, January.
    13. Monica Beuran & Marie Gachassin & Gaël Raballand, 2015. "Are There Myths on Road Impact and Transport in Sub-Saharan Africa?," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 33(5), pages 673-700, September.
    14. Yang, Zili, 2019. "Increasing returns to scale in energy-intensive sectors and its implications on climate change modeling," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 208-216.
    15. Nİhan Akyelken, 2015. "Infrastructure Development and Employment: The Case of Turkey," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(8), pages 1360-1373, August.
    16. Carol Newman & John Page, 2017. "Industrial clusters: The case for Special Economic Zones in Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2017-15, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    17. Zbigniew Mogila, 2015. "Conceptual model of the concept of the territorial cohesion," Working Papers 1510, Instytut Rozwoju, Institute for Development.
    18. Kawasaki, Tomoya & Hanaoka, Shinya & Nguyen, Long Xuan, 2014. "The valuation of shipment time variability in Greater Mekong Subregion," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 25-33.
    19. Hiroshi Kitamura & Noriaki Matsushima & Misato Sato, 2023. "Defending Home against Giants: Exclusive Dealing as a Survival Strategy for Local Firms," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 71(2), pages 441-463, June.
    20. Han, Mengyao & Chen, Guoqian, 2018. "Global arable land transfers embodied in Mainland China’s foreign trade," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 521-534.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Transport Economics Policy&Planning; Post Conflict Reconstruction; Rural Roads&Transport; Banks&Banking Reform; Public Sector Corruption&Anticorruption Measures;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:wbk:wbrwps:6585. 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: Roula I. Yazigi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dvewbus.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.