This paper presents an outline of different approaches wthin evolutionary game theory and sees these approaches in relation to the problem of choosing among multiple equilibria in normal form games. More specifically the paper extends the analysis of Mailath, Kandori and Rob (1993) addressing...

The current shortage of health workers in many low-income countries poses a threat to the quality of health services. When the number of patients per health worker grows sufficiently high, there will be insufficient time to diagnose and treat all patients adequately. This paper tests the...

Over the last decade several African countries have undertaken comprehensive reforms of their tax administrations, with the aims of increasing revenue and curbing corruption. This paper examines recent experiences in the fight against corruption in the Tanzania Revenue Authority. Two lessons of...

The anti-corruption reform in the Tanzanian tax bureaucracy in the mid-1990s was apparently a short-lived success. In the wake of the reform, a number of "tax experts" established themselves in the market, many of them being laid off tax bureaucrats. We argue that middle-men can undermine the...

Market reforms in developing and transition economies have sometimes failed to deliver the desired welfare effects. Corruption may be an important reason for the ineffciency of market reforms, such as privatization campaigns. The present paper demonstrates how corruption can affect the choice of...

A major financial problem in many municipalities in South Africa is the inadequate collection of service charges due to widespread non-payment. The prevailing view is that non-compliance is caused by poverty and the existence of an 'entitlement culture'. However, huge variations in compliance...

The opportunity for a powerful donor country, such as the United States, to use a multilateral financial institution (MFI) strategically in order to promote its own foreign policy goals has received little attention. The gain to a donor that is able to make the World Bank or other MFIs adapt to...

When donors enforce conditionality upon recipients who do not implement the conditions, companies can suffer from cancellation of their contracts with the recipient when aid dries up. A strategic recipient may avoid implementing controversial conditions by only granting a contract to a company...

Despite the importance attached to conditionality by the donors, and the fact that aid is a crucial income source for the recipient, it is found that conditionality fails. One explanation for this failure could be that a halt in aid could trigger the recipient to cancel contracts with companies...

This note outlines some challenges facing parliamentarians in the fight against corruption. To succeed, it is argued, requires open-mindedness with respect to the weaknesses of political institutions, and to seriously consider the possible role of politicians in fuelling corruption.