Social Rights and Economics: Claims to Health Care and Education in Developing Countries

21 Pages Posted: 20 Apr 2016

See all articles by Varun Gauri

Varun Gauri

World Bank; World Bank - Development Research Group (DECRG)

Date Written: March 20, 2003

Abstract

Gauri analyzes contemporary rights-based and economic approaches to health care and education in developing countries. He assesses the foundations and uses of social rights in development, outlines an economic approach to improving health and education services, and then highlights the differences, similarities, and the hard questions that the economic critique poses for rights. The author argues that the policy consequences of rights overlap considerably with a modern economic approach. Both the rights-based and the economic approaches are skeptical that electoral politics and de facto market rules provide sufficient accountability for the effective and equitable provision of health and education services, and that further intrasectoral reforms in governance, particularly those that strengthen the hand of service recipients, are needed. There remain differences between the two approaches. Whether procedures for service delivery are ends in themselves, the degree of disaggregation at which outcomes should be assessed, the consequences of long-term deprivation, metrics used for making tradeoffs, and the behavioral distortions that result from subsidies are all areas where the approaches diverge. Even here, however, the differences are not irreconcilable, and advocates of the approaches need not regard each other as antagonists.

This paper - a product of Public Services, Development Research Group - is a background paper for the 2004 World Development Report.

Suggested Citation

Gauri, Varun, Social Rights and Economics: Claims to Health Care and Education in Developing Countries (March 20, 2003). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=636368

Varun Gauri (Contact Author)

World Bank ( email )

1818 H Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20433
United States

HOME PAGE: http://econ.worldbank.org/staff/vgauri

World Bank - Development Research Group (DECRG)

1818 H. Street, N.W.
MSN3-311
Washington, DC 20433
United States

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