Issues in the designing of public sector reform

Abstract

The paper reviews the theoretical developments in the literature on governance and the way it relates to growth. It revisits the issue of the "brain drain" and analyses how the distorted incentives not just at the domestic level but also at the international level may be leading to a situation where the best human capital of these countries is not utilised at home and is being replaced by expatriate advisors often at a large premium compared to what some of the migrants would accept to return-home. The paper brings out the key points of the civil service reform in some of the more successful reforms cases.