1. Building a Culture of Accountability in Service Delivery: Conclusions from the GDN Project on Varieties of Governance and Service Delivery .- 2. Markets and Hierarchies in Public Services: Incentives, Institutions, and Politics .- 3. Decentralization, Fiscal Effort and Social Progress in Colombia at the Municipal Level, 1994-2009: Why Does National Politics Matter? .- 4. Does Participatory Budgeting Have An Effect On The Quality Of Public Services? The Case of Peru’s Water and Sanitation Sector .- 5. Understanding the Effects of Educational Governance in Chile and Uruguay.

“It draws empirically from comparative case studies in Latin America from the Global Development Network (GDN) research project designed and directed by Perry and Naqvi. Its results are relevant for policymakers and planners, as well as development practitioners and academics.” (Hannah Keren Lee, E&U Enviroment & Urbanization, environmentandurbanization.org, December, 2017)

“This volume is a valuable contribution to the literature on service delivery in developing countries. Its combination of empirical analyses and insights from country experiences deepens our understanding of how institutional, political and social factors affect the quality of services. It provides a nuance perspective of the role played by information and governance arrangements in affecting the behaviors of providers, decision makers and users of services.” (Ariel Fiszbein, Senior Fellow & Program Director, Education, Inter-American Dialogue, USA)“In my current position as Chief of the Education Division at the Inter-American Development Bank, I have become more convinced than ever of the need to strengthen governance to improve the delivery of quality education across Latin America.  While governance may mean different things to different people, in this volume, editors Ramona Angelescu Naqvi and Guillermo Perry take a pragmatic approach and, focusing on the locallevel where citizens receive services, analyze the many dimensions in which strengthening relationships of accountability and support can affect access to quality education and other public services. As the region struggles with improving student learning at all levels, the case studies discussed in this volume can shed light on policy options to improve accountability and support to service providers to guarantee quality education services.” (Emiliana Vegas, Chief of Education Division, Inter-American Development Bank, USA) “This important and accessible book contains a remarkably large set of insights into how delivery may or may not be achieved in the service sector in Latin America. Where most literature on service delivery has focused on quantitative measures, this book delves into quality—much more difficult to research but fundamental to the success of policy. In a context where most countries are struggling with how to decentralize if at all, this book presents crucialfindings. It will be an excellent resource for graduate courses and invaluable to scholars and policymakers interested in markets and service delivery.” (Rosemary Thorp, Emeritus Fellow, University of Oxford, UK)

Assesses the effectiveness of specific modes of governance at the sector level in Latin America with clear and innovative policy lessons Provides new insights into the quality of public service delivery in Latin America by presenting a wide array of case studies from multiple countries in Latin America, including Colombia, Peru, Chile, and Uruguay Uses a well-managed blend of quantitative and qualitative methodology and thus serves as an accessible reference for both scholars and practitioners