Corruption and the delivery of health and education services

This paper summarizes the expanding literature on corruption in the health and education sectors. It begins with a discussion of the nature of corruption in health and education and presents a typology of different kinds of corruption in the provider-client (doctor-patient, teacher-student) relationship, in the provider-supplier relationship (procurement etc.), the payer-supplier relationship (insurance fraud etc.) and in the service delivery organization itself. This is followed by a review of the evidence on the effect of corruption on health and education outcomes. It summarizes the findings of Gupta et al., who find that corruption levels across countries undermine health and education outcomes. It then discusses the results of a study that shows that reducing corruption increases the effectiveness of public expenditure on health and education. Next comes an examination of the causes of corruption with a focus on the health sector. Finally, there is a review of promising work currently underway at the World Bank on quantitative service delivery surveys (QSDS) and public expenditure tracking surveys (PETS). The paper concludes with some tentative policy suggestions.