Budgets can be complex documents. Many people feel intimidated by budget work, assuming that it requires very technical skills. But budget work can be straightforward. Using basic arithmetic, civil society can use budget information to talk in...

Teacher absenteeism affects the quality of education by reducing instructional time. Moreover, as teachers represent the single largest item in the education budget of all countries, their absence from the classroom represents a direct loss of...

Using panel data from a unique survey of public primary schools in Uganda, Reinikka and Svensson assess the degree of leakage of public funds in education. The survey data reveal that on average, during the period 1991-95, schools received only 13...

In this chapter, Reinikka demonstrates that increasing public access to information has reduced inefficiency and corruption in Uganda. The survey from which her conclusions are drawn shows that budget allocations matter little when institutions are...