Publication: Why is Absenteeism Low among Public Health Workers in Lao PDR?
Loading...
Files in English
444 downloads
Published
2012-10-12
ISSN
0022-0388
Date
2013-05-10
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Absenteeism among public health workers is common in developing countries. Absence rates among public health workers are above 25 per cent in the five developing countries that Chaudhury et al. (N. Chaudhury, J. Hammer, M. Kremer, K. Muralidharan, and F.H. Rogers (2006) Missing in action: Teacher and health worker absence in developing countries. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 20, pp. 91–116) examined. However, the present study finds that the corresponding rate in Lao PDR is significantly lower (17%). Using a new dataset from the Lao PDR Public Expenditure Tracking Survey, we find that both extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation affect health centre worker behaviour: the timely payment of wages, a nonrural workplace and proximity of the workplace to hometown are factors that are negatively associated with absenteeism.
Link to Data Set
Digital Object Identifier
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Ghost Doctors : Absenteeism in Bangladeshi Health Facilities(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2003-05)The authors report on a study in which unannounced visits were made to health clinics in Bangladesh with the intention of discovering what fraction of medical professionals were present at their assigned post. This survey represents the first attempt to quantify the extent of the problem on a nationally representative scale. Nationwide the average number of vacancies over all types of providers in rural health centers is 26 percent. Regionally, vacancy rates (unfilled posts) are generally higher in the poorer parts of the country. Absentee rates at over 40 percent are particularly high for doctors. When separated into level of facility, the absentee rate for doctors at the larger clinics is 40 percent, but at the smaller sub-centers with a single doctor, the rate is 74 percent. Even though the primary purpose of this survey is to document the extent of the problem among medical staff, the authors also explore the determinants of staff absenteeism. Whether the medical provider lives near the health facility, access to a road, and rural electrification are important determinants of the rate and pattern of staff absentee rates.Publication Health Information, Treatment, and Worker Productivity : Experimental Evidence from Malaria Testing and Treatment among Nigerian Sugarcane Cutters(World Bank Group, Washington, DC, 2014-11)Agricultural and other physically demanding sectors are important sources of growth in developing countries but prevalent diseases such as malaria adversely impact the productivity, labor supply, and choice of job tasks among workers by reducing physical capacity. This study identifies the impact of malaria on worker earnings, labor supply, and daily productivity by randomizing the temporal order at which piece-rate workers at a large sugarcane plantation in Nigeria are offered malaria testing and treatment. The results indicate a significant and substantial intent to treat effect of the intervention -- the offer of a workplace-based malaria testing and treatment program increases worker earnings by approximately 10 percent over the weeks following the offer. The study further investigates the effect of health information by contrasting program effects by workers' revealed health status. For workers who test positive for malaria, the treatment of illness increases labor supply, leading to higher earnings. For workers who test negative, and especially for those workers most likely to be surprised by the healthy diagnosis, the health information also leads to increased earnings via increased productivity. Possible mechanisms for this response include selection into higher return tasks within the plantation as a result of changes in the perceived cost of effort. A model of the worker labor decision that allows health expectations partly to determine the supply of effort suggests that, in endemic settings with poor quality health services, inaccurate health perceptions may lead workers to suboptimal labor allocation decisions. The results underline the importance of medical treatment, but also of access to improved information about one's health status, as the absence of either may lead workers to deliver lower effort in lower return jobs.Publication Tajikistan - Second Programmatic Public Expenditure Review : Volume 4. Public Expenditure Ttracking Survey (PETS), Health Sector(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-06-12)This report, Second Programmatic Public Expenditure Review (PPER 2), is a sequel to PPER, which was published in July 2007. PPER 2 provides a detailed analysis of key public expenditure issues in Tajikistan and reports on the nonlending policy dialogue and technical assistance programs managed and coordinated by the World Bank. PPER 2 has a special focus on social sectors, especially the health and education sectors. Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys (PETS) carried out for the first time in Tajikistan in 2007 contributed to the findings in this report. The report also updates the macroeconomic and fiscal situation to take account of important developments in 2007 and analyzes the implications of energy sector reforms and investments for fiscal sustainability. This report is intended to contribute to improving the quality of life in Tajikistan through a comprehensive reform program. It spells out the macroeconomic, energy, and budget reforms necessary to achieve the growth the country seeks and, at the same time (and frequently via the same measures) the social welfare targets of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).Publication Niger - Public Expenditure Tracking Survey : Education and Health - Main Report(World Bank, 2009-11-18)The objective of the first Public Expenditure Tracking Survey (PETS) for Niger is to increase understanding of the link between public spending and service delivery at the facility level in order to contribute to improving the effectiveness and accountability in the use of public funds. Specifically, this PETS focuses on identifying the discrepancies, inefficiencies and delays in public spending execution for selected expenditures in the education and health sectors. The medium to long term goal of these PETS is to launch a process aimed at continuous improvements in public expenditure efficiency and equity by focusing on capacity building in this area in the ministries of education and health and in the Institute of National Statistics (INS). The main challenge faced by a tracking survey in a country like Niger is the availability and accuracy of records keeping. The Niger PETS highlights a general lack of systematic information recording. The quality of records in the education sector is low and data often incomplete. This is especially a problem when a higher level agency distributes resources to lower level agencies. The absence of downstream records indicates a lack of systems for downward accountability and can facilitate the diversion of resources. This compares unfavorably with a country such as Ghana, where the quality of record is good between the central agency and district offices.Publication Niger - Public Expenditure Tracking Survey : Education and Health - Survey Questionnaire(World Bank, 2009-11-18)The objective of the first Public Expenditure Tracking Survey (PETS) for Niger is to increase understanding of the link between public spending and service delivery at the facility level in order to contribute to improving the effectiveness and accountability in the use of public funds. Specifically, this PETS focuses on identifying the discrepancies, inefficiencies and delays in public spending execution for selected expenditures in the education and health sectors. The medium to long term goal of these PETS is to launch a process aimed at continuous improvements in public expenditure efficiency and equity by focusing on capacity building in this area in the ministries of education and health and in the Institute of National Statistics (INS). The main challenge faced by a tracking survey in a country like Niger is the availability and accuracy of records keeping. The Niger PETS highlights a general lack of systematic information recording. The quality of records in the education sector is low and data often incomplete. This is especially a problem when a higher level agency distributes resources to lower level agencies. The absence of downstream records indicates a lack of systems for downward accountability and can facilitate the diversion of resources. This compares unfavorably with a country such as Ghana, where the quality of record is good between the central agency and district offices.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Quantitative Analysis of Road Transport Agreements (QuARTA)(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2013-04-13)Road freight transport is indispensable to international economic cooperation and foreign trade. Across all continents, it is commonly used for short and medium distances and in long distance haulage when minimizing time is important. In all instances governments play a critical role in ensuring the competitive advantage of private sector operators. Countries often have many opportunities to minimize the physical or administrative barriers that increase costs, take measures to enhance the attractiveness and competitiveness of road transport, or generally nurture the integral role of international road freight transport in the global trade logistics industry. Road freight transport is critical to domestic and international trade. It is the dominant mode of transport for overland movement of trade traffic, carrying more than 80 percent of traffic in most regions. Generally, nearly all trade traffic is carried by road at some point. Therefore, the cost and quality of road transport services is of critical importance to trade competitiveness of countries and regions within countries. In fact, road transport is fundamental to modern international division of labor and supply-chain management.Publication World Development Report 2008(Washington, DC, 2007)The world's demand for food is expected to double within the next 50 years, while the natural resources that sustain agriculture will become increasingly scarce, degraded, and vulnerable to the effects of climate change. In many poor countries, agriculture accounts for at least 40 percent of GDP and 80 percent of employment. At the same time, about 70 percent of the world's poor live in rural areas and most depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. World Development Report 2008 seeks to assess where, when, and how agriculture can be an effective instrument for economic development, especially development that favors the poor. It examines several broad questions: How has agriculture changed in developing countries in the past 20 years? What are the important new challenges and opportunities for agriculture? Which new sources of agricultural growth can be captured cost effectively in particular in poor countries with large agricultural sectors as in Africa? How can agricultural growth be made more effective for poverty reduction? How can governments facilitate the transition of large populations out of agriculture, without simply transferring the burden of rural poverty to urban areas? How can the natural resource endowment for agriculture be protected? How can agriculture's negative environmental effects be contained? This year's report marks the 30th year the World Bank has been publishing the World Development Report.Publication Global Economic Prospects, January 2025(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-01-16)Global growth is expected to hold steady at 2.7 percent in 2025-26. However, the global economy appears to be settling at a low growth rate that will be insufficient to foster sustained economic development—with the possibility of further headwinds from heightened policy uncertainty and adverse trade policy shifts, geopolitical tensions, persistent inflation, and climate-related natural disasters. Against this backdrop, emerging market and developing economies are set to enter the second quarter of the twenty-first century with per capita incomes on a trajectory that implies substantially slower catch-up toward advanced-economy living standards than they previously experienced. Without course corrections, most low-income countries are unlikely to graduate to middle-income status by the middle of the century. Policy action at both global and national levels is needed to foster a more favorable external environment, enhance macroeconomic stability, reduce structural constraints, address the effects of climate change, and thus accelerate long-term growth and development.Publication Doing Business in 2005(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2004)2004 was a good year for doing business in most transition economies, the World Bank Group concluded in its Doing Business in 2005 survey, the second in its series tracking regulatory reforms aimed at improving the ease of doing business in the world's economies. However, the survey found that conditions for starting and running a business in poorer countries were consistently more burdensome than in richer countries. The top 5 economies on the ease of doing business were, in order: New Zealand, United States, Singapore, Hong Kong (China), and Australia. Slovakia was the leading reformer, together with Lithuania breaking into the list of the 20 economies with the best business conditions. The major impetus for reform in 2003 was competition in the enlarged European Union. Doing Business in 2004 presented indicators in 5 topics (starting a business, hiring and firing workers, enforcing contracts, getting credit and closing a business), so this report updates these measures. There are two additional sets: registering property and protecting investors. The indicators are used to analyze economic and social outcomes, such as productivity, investment, informality, corruption, unemployment, and poverty, and identify what reforms have worked, where and why.Publication Poverty, Prosperity, and Planet Report 2024(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-15)The Poverty, Prosperity, and Planet Report 2024 is the latest edition of the series formerly known as Poverty and Shared Prosperity. The report emphasizes that reducing poverty and increasing shared prosperity must be achieved in ways that do not come at unacceptably high costs to the environment. The current “polycrisis”—where the multiple crises of slow economic growth, increased fragility, climate risks, and heightened uncertainty have come together at the same time—makes national development strategies and international cooperation difficult. Offering the first post-Coronavirus (COVID)-19 pandemic assessment of global progress on this interlinked agenda, the report finds that global poverty reduction has resumed but at a pace slower than before the COVID-19 crisis. Nearly 700 million people worldwide live in extreme poverty with less than US$2.15 per person per day. Progress has essentially plateaued amid lower economic growth and the impacts of COVID-19 and other crises. Today, extreme poverty is concentrated mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa and fragile settings. At a higher standard more typical of upper-middle-income countries—US$6.85 per person per day—almost one-half of the world is living in poverty. The report also provides evidence that the number of countries that have high levels of income inequality has declined considerably during the past two decades, but the pace of improvements in shared prosperity has slowed, and that inequality remains high in Latin America and the Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa. Worldwide, people’s incomes today would need to increase fivefold on average to reach a minimum prosperity threshold of US$25 per person per day. Where there has been progress in poverty reduction and shared prosperity, there is evidence of an increasing ability of countries to manage natural hazards, but climate risks are significantly higher in the poorest settings. Nearly one in five people globally is at risk of experiencing welfare losses due to an extreme weather event from which they will struggle to recover. The interconnected issues of climate change and poverty call for a united and inclusive effort from the global community. Development cooperation stakeholders—from governments, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector to communities and citizens acting locally in every corner of the globe—hold pivotal roles in promoting fair and sustainable transitions. By emphasizing strategies that yield multiple benefits and diligently monitoring and addressing trade-offs, we can strive toward a future that is prosperous, equitable, and resilient.