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Copyright of African Journal of Reproductive Health is the property of Women's Health & Action Research Centre and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose: This study continues the series of previous research carried out by the authors on digital transformation in the EU countries. It aims to identify and analyse the progress made by EU administrations in terms of digitization and effective governance in the period 2019-2021. Design/methodology/approach: Based on selected variables from Eurostat and the World Bank databases, the article provides insights into the dynamic changes that occurred in the EU in the period under consideration. The research employs Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and K-means clustering as the primary research methods to analyse the variations and correlations among 10 numerical variables selected from Eurostat and World Bank databases. Findings and Practical Implications: The results obtained through PCA show the impact of digitalization on government effectiveness. A comprehensive analysis of government effectiveness has been conducted using PCA, which reveals that the first two principal components account for 77.05% of the initial variance. A K-means clustering with four clusters reveals that the most significant and noteworthy increase in digitalization and government effectiveness in the EU is achieved by the Nordic countries, which exhibit high levels of digitalization and government efficiency. Originality: In this ranking, clusters 2 and 3 comprise well-developed countries with a positive relation between governmental digitalization and efficiency, while cluster 4 consists of emerging countries where the correlation between digitization and governmental efficiency is low or very low, which is primarily attributed to the limited degree of digitization within government institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study investigates the impact of total health expenditure on life expectancy in a panel of 43 African countries from 2000 to 2018. Design/methodology/approach: The dynamic panel generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation method developed by Arellano and Bond (1991) is used in this study. This approach generates estimates that are heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation consistent, as well as controls for unobserved time-invariant country-specific effects and eliminates any endogeneity in the panel model. Findings: The results reveal that health expenditure on its own has a positive significant influence on life expectancy. However, health expenditure via the moderating effect of government effectiveness reduces life expectancy. The authors also observe that school enrollment and the level of economic activity significantly drive life expectancy. Research limitations/implications: The study is limited to 43 out of 54 African countries, and it covers a period of 18 years: 2000 to 2018. Practical implications: The authors argue that larger health expenditure will aid in improving the life expectancy rate in Africa. However, in practice, this would be difficult given the needs of other priority sectors. Social implications: Since most developing countries' health expenditures are small, a policy option is that healthcare services should be subsidized such that the poorest people can also access them. Originality/value: The study differs from the previous attempts, and with this, the authors contribute significantly to the literature. First, to the best of the authors' knowledge, the authors are unaware of any study considering the role of government effectiveness as a moderating factor in investigating the effect of health expenditure on life expectancy in the African context. Thus, the authors fill a yawning gap in the literature. Second, the authors employ a recent dataset with larger sample size. Finally, to address the problem of endogeneity and simultaneity bias, the authors use the system GMM technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Political Science Review / Przegląd Politologiczny is the property of Faculty of Political Science & Journalism, Adam Mickiewicz University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The trend of globalization, accompanied by the dynamic development of social systems, places the European states in a completely new position, in which institutions and administrative systems must be adapted. Any intervention in the field of public administration reform implies changes in its major components to have efficient governance in the context of internal and regional political instability. The objective of our research was to identify and analyze the correlations between the main indicators of government effectiveness and political stability in the EU member states during 2020-2022. For this research, we have selected four representative variables. The research methods used are the Pearson correlation matrix, for identifying and analyzing the correlations, and the K-means clustering algorithm for grouping the EU states into clusters based on the considered variables. The results show that approximately half of the EU states are grouped in cluster 3, which is characterized by a high level of governmental efficiency and political stability. The states in the first two clusters include states from Central and Eastern Europe where significant changes are needed to increase government effectiveness and political stability. The results of our research offer an updated correlative analysis between government effectiveness and political stability in the EU member states in the last few years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digitalization of public administration is a necessary condition for the economic and social development of each country. In this context, e-government is developing and diversifying its forms of implementation, contributing significantly to the efficiency of public administration, to increasing the degree of transparency and to reducing corruption in public institutions. The aim of the research was to know how the states of the European Union evolved from the point of view of e-government and what influence it had on the economic development of the analyzed states and on the European citizens during the analyzed period. For this we selected ten research variables from several databases: Eurostat, the World Bank and the United Nations E-Government Development Database (UNeGovDD) of the United Nations. The period for which we did the analysis is 2010 – 2019. Using EViews 12 we applied panel Principal Component Analysis to reduce the 10-variable panel into a lower dimension of 3 principal components to find the underlying simplified structure. The three principal components retained explain about 76.5 % of the initial information. The research results show significant differences between the states analyzed, in terms of e-government, but also in terms of the impact it has on government effectiveness, controlling corruption, e-participation of European citizens and the economic development of Member States. In countries with a high level of e-government implementation, governance is efficient, corruption is low, citizen involvement is higher and economic development is faster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to explore under which institutional and organizational conditions the national e-government reform efforts of EU member states lead to very high availability of e-services. Design/methodology/approach: Following e-government literature of information systems and public administration research, this study applies an analytical framework encompassing characteristics of the national politico-administrative system (state structure, government capacity, managerial innovation orientation and civil service system) to understand why a common policy framework does not lead to convergence but great variety in the degree of e-service availability. A comparative case study approach using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) is applied to systematically compare e-service availability in the former 28 EU member states. Findings: Three configurations of sufficient conditions are identified: government capacity in conjunction with either bureaucratic human resource practices, centralized state structure or managerial innovation orientation. Three country clusters are derived: effective bureaucrats, effective centralists and effective managers. Originality/value: The results demonstrate the importance of administrative effectiveness for the digital transformation. Rather than mimicking best practices, countries are advised to learn from better performing countries that are most similar in terms of institutional and organizational characteristics of the politico-administrative system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Central European Public Administration Review is the property of University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Public Administration and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper focuses on two key issues that characterize the current public financial management debate—the quality of governance, and public sector accounting reforms. After investigating a sample of 33 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries for the period 2010–2014, the authors suggest that states which have implemented public sector accounting reforms (through the adoption of accrual based accounting systems and the implementation of International Public Sector Accounting Standards) have a higher level of governance quality. More specifically, their results suggest a positive influence on the level of accountability, government effectiveness, regulation quality, the rule of law, and controlling corruption; while political stability is not affected by such reforms. This paper presents evidence from 33 countries that adopting accrual accounting and implementing International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) will improve the quality of governance. These findings suggest these two public sector accounting reforms can solve the agency problem between politicians and citizens and, by doing so, can improve governance. Opportunistic behaviour of politicians can be reduced with standardized and harmonized accounting information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To explain the positive reciprocal relationship found between e-Government Development and Government Effectiveness, a five-level model is constructed to track the paths that must be taken for public servants to be trusted to enact e-Government Development. A combination of reform, discretionary and adaptive contributions by public servants can lead to the establishment of public service bargains at the third level. ‘Post-New Public Management’ reforms and exceptional adaptive leadership are, however, required to move countries to the fourth level where public servants are trusted to act across the range of role identities required to enact e-Government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main aim of this article was to analyze the relationship of income inequality and government effectiveness with differences in efficiency in the use of health inputs to improve the under-five survival rate (U5SR) in developing countries. Robust Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and regression analysis were conducted using data for 47 developing countries for the periods 2000-2004, 2005-2009, and 2010-2012. The estimations show that countries with a more equal income distribution and better government effectiveness (i.e. a more competent bureaucracy and good quality public service delivery) may need fewer health inputs to achieve a specific level of the U5SR than other countries with higher inequality and worse government effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study adds to the field of public administration by focusing on the nexus between government decision and bank performance scores highlighting the administrative regulatory dimensions of improvements. To this end, this research paper covers a unique database comprising all listed banks that operate on emerging European markets in the period 2005-2011. Country specific characteristics are presented in the light of public administration quality which includes the dimension of governance quality on the one side, andthe quality and administrative burden on business environment on the other.Bank performance is defined under two different approaches (accounting vs. market based) taking into account different stakeholders interest (state and central bank authority vs. investors).We account for profit persistency by using a Prais-Winsten regression that allows for both autocorrelation and heteroskedasticity in data. The results call attention to the fact that in emerging European markets regulatory glitches have a positive impact upon bank performance. Market imperfections are a source of profitability as they generate a reliable supply of market share appropriation and thus monopoly power. Also, administrative commitment towards increasing the quality of public services and policies endorsed by diminishing the level of corruption will accelerate private development and thus banking profitability.

This integrative study aims to answer the important question whether size of government together with government effectiveness have a positive relationship with selected socioeconomic development in ASEAN countries from 2000 to 2015. Public expenditure is used to represent the size of government and it has been and is still a common tool for many governments used to serve their goals in socioeconomic development, service provision, raising living standards, and many other objectives. Literature has linked public expenditure to positive outcomes of long-term economic growth and other dimensions of development. However, there can be certain factors affecting efficacy in public expenditure and socioeconomic development, especially institutional capacity. Therefore, from the public administration aspect, government effectiveness was incorporated to assess the relationship with socioeconomic development. This study argues that ASEAN countries which limited the growth of public expenditure perform as well as those with relatively big government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Expanding the literature on support for the welfare state, we explain citizens' attitudes towards it by focusing on their perceptions about economic conditions and government effectiveness in their country rather than objective assessments of them. Using data from the 2008 European Social Survey, we demonstrate that citizens believe that the standard of living of economically weak populations goes hand in hand with a well-managed government, which treats all sectors and populations equally and proves efficient. Under these conditions, preferences for government intervention to improve welfare outcomes decline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study adds to the field of public administration by focusing on the nexus between government decision and bank performance scores highlighting the administrative regulatory dimensions of improvements. To this end, this research paper covers a unique database comprising all listed banks that operate on emerging European markets in the period 2005-2011. Country specific characteristics are presented in the light of public administration quality which includes the dimension of governance quality on the one side, and the quality and administrative burden on business environment on the other. Bank performance is defined under two different approaches (accounting vs. market based) taking into account different stakeholders interest (state and central bank authority vs. investors).We account for profit persistency by using a Prais-Winsten regression that allows for both autocorrelation and heteroskedasticity in data. The results call attention to the fact that in emerging European markets regulatory glitches have a positive impact upon bank performance. Market imperfections are a source of profitability as they generate a reliable supply of market share appropriation and thus monopoly power. Also, administrative commitment towards increasing the quality of public services and policies endorsed by diminishing the level of corruption will accelerate private development and thus banking profitability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this cross-country empirical analysis is to investigate the relationship between good governance, measured through six clusters of governance developed by the World Bank, and the quality of business environment, captured through the ranking on the ease of doing business, also assessed by the World Bank. This paper analyzes the influence of governance indicators on the ease of doing business using a classification of economies of all countries with population of more than 30,000 citizens, divided on income groups such as low income, lower middle income, upper middle income, high income non-OECD and high income OECD. The findings show the significant influence of some governance indicators such as 'government effectiveness' or 'regulatory quality' on the ease of doing business, for all countries, while 'the rule of law' and 'control of corruption' are very determining factors for the business environment especially for countries classified in high income categories. Moreover, this paper could represent an argument for the relevance of governance quality for the ease of doing business, highlighting the necessity to pay enough attention to ensuring good governance in order to provide effective development outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to attribute Singapore's good governance to the effective policies implemented by the People's Action Party (PAP) government and contend that it will be difficult to transfer Singapore's experience to other countries because of Singapore's unique circumstances and favourable policy context. Design/methodology/approach – The paper analyses four policies initiated by the PAP government: comprehensive reform of the Singapore Civil Service; anti-corruption measures; decentralization of the Public Service Commission; and payment of competitive salaries to attract and retain the best candidates to the government. The effectiveness of these policies is assessed by referring to Singapore's performance on eight governance indicators. Findings – The four policies are effective, as reflected in Singapore's superior rankings and scores on eight indicators: Global Competitiveness Report's (GCR's) competence of public officials; World Bank's indicator on government effectiveness; Political Economic Risk Consultancy's (PERC's) survey on bureaucratic effectiveness; Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index; PERC's survey on corruption; World Bank's indicator on control of corruption; World Bank's ease of doing business survey; and GCR's public trust of politicians survey. However, as Singapore's good governance is the result of the PAP government's political will and its favourable policy context, it is difficult to transfer Singapore's experience elsewhere because of the limited political will and unfavourable policy contexts in many Asian countries. Originality/value – This paper will be useful to those interested in learning how Singapore succeeded in promoting good governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Institutional design balances the costs and benefits of dictatorship and disorder. Democracy can be efficient if it improves the performance of government. Yet, sometimes authoritarian governments can be efficient if they reduce disorder. We show that democratisation has a non-linear effect on income-adjusted perceptions of government effectiveness. These findings present a new opportunity to revisit the study of government performance for researchers working in public administration and political science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To explore the determinants of global e-government performance, this paper examines the aggregate data of 163 different countries by conducting multivariate statistical analysis. The results of multivariate regression analysis indicate that the performance of digital government is likely to be determined by economic wealth, education, urbanization, civil liberties, government effectiveness, and the interaction between Internet usage and economic wealth, while the extent of internet penetration alone does not determine e-government performance. More importantly, this study indicates that government effectiveness is much more important than any other factors in determining global e-government performance. The countries with high e-government performance are likely to be the wealthy, developed, and Western countries or the rapidly developing Asian countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both the evidence-based policy and performance management movements aim to improve government effectiveness by developing and utilizing a more rigorous base of information and scientific evidence to guide decisions about program design, funding, implementation, and management. In practice, however, differences and tensions between these movements—such as their methods and standards for assembling and analyzing data, and the strategic timing and use of this information to influence policy and hold public managers accountable for performance—could limit their success. Using cases and empirical studies, this article considers questions about what should count as evidence, how it should be communicated, who should judge the quality and reliability of evidence and performance information, and how to achieve a balance between processes that produce rigorous information for decision making and those that foster democratic governance and accountability. Recommendations are made for improving government effectiveness by using more rigorous information in decision making, along with acknowledgment of the limitations and risks associated with such efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we use a broad cross-national sample to test decentralisation's relationship with two important indicators of the quality of governance: efficiency and effectiveness. Contrary to much of the conventional wisdom, we find that the effects of decentralisation are minimal when controlling for basic structural variables such as per capita GDP and degree of democracy. In addition we find that different types of decentralisation – fiscal, administrative, and political – have differing and sometimes opposing impacts on the quality of governance. Finally, we find that political decentralisation in particular is associated with higher government efficiency among high GDP per capita countries while it is associated with lower government efficiency among low GDP per capita countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]