Even when politicians depend upon support from the majority of poor citizens to gain and remain in office, we observe substantial variation across democracies in developing countries in the effectiveness of public expenditure policies to provide the poor with basic services. Some part of this variation can be explained by imperfections in political markets that are greater in some environments relative to others. This presentation will analyze the role of imperfect information of voters, social polarization, and lack of credibility of political promises, in shaping political incentives. This framework will then be used to explore "solutions" to the problem of political accountability for basic services, focusing on the potential of decentralization to local governments, and of public information campaigns to improve political incentives.

Stuti Khemani is an Economist in the Development Research Group of the World Bank (Public Services Team). For more information and publications, please visit econ.worldbank.org/staff/skhemani/.