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Decentralization is an important element in the policy formulation and implementation of Primary Health Care (PHC) in developing countries. While this may well be the case, certain forms of “decentralization” policies can have negative implications for the development of PHC. It can be associated with a reduced role of the public sector, weaken the central Ministry of Health, be instrumental in producing inequity and facilitate political domination. It is necessary to examine decentralization with a view to securing its effective formulation and implementation. A set of ten questions and related issues is set out to facilitate this examination.

Decentralization has profound implications for many health systems. This study investigates the effect of health system decentralization in Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries on public health security capacity and health service satisfaction.

Multiple linear regression analyses were employed for variables related to the level of health security capacity and satisfaction with the healthcare system while controlling for all socio-demographic variables from the European Social Survey, including over 44,000 respondents from 25 OECD countries. The Health Systems in Transition series of countries were used for assessing the decentralization level.

The result of multiple linear regression analyses showed that the level of decentralization in health systems was significantly associated with higher health security capacity (ß-coefficient 3.722, 95% confidence interval (CI) [3.536 3.908]; p=<0.001) and health service satisfaction (ß-coefficient 1.463, 95% CI [1.389 1.536]; p=<0.001) in the study. Countries with a higher level of decentralization in health policy tasks and areas were significantly likely to have higher health services satisfaction, whereas this satisfaction had a significant negative relation with the lower level of decentralization status of secondary/tertiary care services in OECD countries (ß-coefficient −5.250, 95% CI [−5.757–4.743]; p = 0.001).

This study contributes to a better understanding of the extent to which decentralization of health services affects public health safety capacity and satisfaction with health services, whereas the level of decentralization in OECD countries varies considerably. Overall, the findings highlight the importance of public health security and satisfaction with health care delivery in assessing the effects of decentralization in health services.

This article examines the links between average city size, fiscal decentralisation, and national economic growth in 33 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries.

The data in this paper comprise an unbalanced panel dataset which contains economic growth indicators, average city size, fiscal decentralisation indicators and control variables in 33 OECD member countries from 1975 to 2015 in five-year intervals. Fixed-effects (FE) estimators are used for the analysis.

This research finds i) countries with larger weighted average city sizes have higher economic growth, ii) countries with greater fiscal decentralisation have higher economic growth, but iii) countries with larger weighted average city sizes with greater decentralisation have lower rates of economic growth.

The research highlights the importance of agglomerations and decentralised governance and management for economic growth. While the findings are consistent with previous evidence that larger city sizes and fiscal decentralisation are separately associated with higher rates of economic growth, the authors find countries which have larger cities and greater fiscal decentralisation experience lower rates of economic growth highlighting a need for caution on decentralisation agendas in such cases. The implications of this suggest policymakers should proceed with caution on decentralisation agendas in countries with large cities.

This study aims to explore how the use of mobile instant messaging (MIM) in an organization has led to the decentralization of authority.

To achieve this aim, a study was conducted on a case site that had used MIM extensively to manage an event.

This study found that communication technology such as MIM can shift more authority to the lower-level committees through the processes of formation, delegation, control and dissolution.

The role of information systems and technology in affecting a decentralization process has been largely understudied. Additionally, the effect of communication technologies such as MIM on a decentralization process has been largely ignored. Therefore, this study theorizes the role of MIM in managing an event and how the technology has decentralized more authority from the top management to the lower-level committees.

The study was designed to investigate the effects of the decentralization of education through the perceptions of education managers.

This was a qualitative case study research. The decentralization notification of 2014, issued by the secondary education department, Government of Balochistan, Pakistan was taken as a case. Some administrative and financial powers were devolved at cluster and district levels through this notification. In pursuance of data collection, focus group discussions were conducted with 20 education managers, 20 teachers, and 5 high-ranked education policy actors. The gathered data were analyzed using thematic analysis.

The study found that the intent of the decentralization move was positive, where some of the issues of teachers are now resolved at district and school levels. However, academic decentralization was utterly neglected. Furthermore, with the inclusion of district administration in the education decision-making, powers seem to be recentralized. The study concluded that decentralization should occur through a proper legislative process based on sound planning. There should be a balance between central authorities and local/district-level education management in education management and decision-making.

The study adds to the existing literature relating to education management and informs education managers, teachers, school principals, and policy actors for research-based and informed decision-making.

This study was conducted in a developing country to understand the effects of decentralized education management. The authors declare the organicity of the data. The authors also declare that the paper has not been submitted to any other journal or in review elsewhere.

The authors test the effect of expenditure decentralization and fiscal equalization on short- and long-run economic growth and estimate two-step generalized method of moment (GMM) simultaneous equations models, using panel data for China and India for the period 1985 to 2005. The authors estimate two simultaneous equations: a growth equation and equalization equation and find that expenditure decentralization has a negative and statistically significant effect at conventional levels on short-run economic growth for both China and India. However, the authors also find that this result is sensitive to the set of included explanatory variables. This leads the authors to conclude that expenditure decentralization has no effect on short-run economic growth for either country. The authors also find that expenditure decentralization has a positive and statistically significant effect on fiscal equalization for both countries but find no evidence that fiscal equalization affects short-run economic growth for either China or India. In contrast, the authors find that expenditure decentralization has a positive effect on long-run economic growth in the case of India, but not in the case of China. Finally, the authors report evidence that fiscal equalization has no effect on long-run economic growth in the case of China; however, the authors find that equalization has a positive and statistically significant at conventional levels effect on long-run economic growth in India.

The authors estimate two-step GMM simultaneous equations models, using panel data for China and India for the period 1985 to 2005. To examine the effect of fiscal decentralization (FD) policies on economic growth in China and India, the authors estimate two equations: a growth equation and an equalization equation. For the growth equation, the authors adopt a production-function-based model that is widely used in the empirical literature on growth; however, the authors do make some compromises with this specification due to the unavailability of certain data. For the equalization equation, the authors include variables that economic theory and empirical evidence suggest influence fiscal disparities among subnational governments which in turn influence the demand for horizontal fiscal equalization (HFE). To the extent possible, the authors employ the same econometric specification, variable constructions and sample periods for both China and India. The authors believe this strategy provides a more rigorous test of the FD hypothesis.

The authors find that expenditure decentralization has a negative and statistically significant effect at conventional levels on short-run economic growth for both China and India. However, the authors also find that this result is sensitive to the set of included explanatory variables. This leads to conclude that expenditure decentralization has no effect on short-run economic growth for either country. The authors also find that expenditure decentralization has a positive and statistically significant effect on fiscal equalization for both countries but find no evidence that fiscal equalization affects short-run economic growth for either China or India. In contrast, the authors find that expenditure decentralization has a positive effect on long-run economic growth in the case of India, but not in the case of China. Finally, the authors report evidence that fiscal equalization has no effect on long-run economic growth in the case of China; however, the authors find that equalization has a positive and statistically significant at conventional levels effect on long-run economic growth in India.

Due to the importance of FD policies, especially to many developing countries that are currently pursuing decentralization reforms, future research should examine the effect of FD on economic growth for other countries. Furthermore, although it would be difficult to do so, future research should examine whether FD promotes political stability on ethnically diverse countries.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no one has examined the effect of FD policies on India's growth experience. What is more is that this is also the first of its kind to have a comprehensive empirical investigation into these two major developing countries with very interesting similarities and differences in FD policies. It is thus of great importance to examine the effect of expenditure decentralization and HFE on economic growth in China and India.

The purpose of this article is to explore decentralization as a management strategy in university library administration using University Libraries of Calabar, Uyo and Cross River State University as case studies. It examines how effective the different levels of decentralization in a large establishment such as a university library can stabilize the management system and create cohesion, and harmony in spite of problems of communication, coordination and control.

These objectives are achieved through the descriptive survey methodology investigating the implications of a decentralized system of administration in a university library using the instrument of questionnaire.

The finding is that decentralization could make for efficient management in a large establishment such as a university library especially if enhanced by the new technologies.

For further research, this paper suggests investigation into the implications of the assertion that no organization is totally centralized or totally decentralized.

The practical implication of this paper is the fact that there are both centralized and decentralized systems of functions, services and administration in most university libraries. Where a library is totally decentralized, the high executive has no more responsibilities and the library may collapse. Where it is totally centralized, subordinates are alienated and are remote from activities.

Provides the rather paradoxical vision of the internet as a centralized approach towards the enhancement of a decentralized system of administration.

This paper aims to identify and compare the nature of decentralization that has emerged in three important Asian societies after a decade of their involvement in the decentralization movement.

Data from the first cycle of the program for international student assessment were analyzed to investigate educational decentralization in three Asian societies: Hong Kong, Japan, and Korea. Cluster analysis was used to reveal the nature and extent of decentralization of the schooling systems in the three societies.

The results revealed four models of decentralization: highly centralized, school‐driven, teacher‐driven, and highly decentralized. Whilst the school‐driven model was dominant in Hong Kong, indicating that the school itself is largely responsible for making school‐related decisions, the centralized model was dominant in both Japan and Korea, indicating that authorities outside the school are largely responsible for making school‐related decisions.

The study is based on cross‐sectional design and focuses mainly on secondary schooling systems in the three Asian societies.

OECD/PISA constitutes one of the most comprehensive and rigorous international databases about different aspects of educational systems. It provides a unique opportunity to assess the distribution of decision‐making responsibilities between the different stakeholders in different education systems. This enables for the first time a country‐wide comparison on issues of decentralization of various decision areas in this paper.

In 1988, Israel’s largest sick fund embarked on a process of decentralization, which consisted of the delegation of authority from central management to two regions that were chosen as demonstration sites. Aims to examine the extent to which the decentralization plan was implemented, to identify the major difficulties in implementation and to evaluate the process of implementing organizational change. Contends that the demonstration programme was implemented in part only, and that difficulties did arise during implementation. Our evaluation of the decentralization process led us to develop conceptual diagnoses of the various problems that might arise during decentralization and derive lessons for successful implementation. Evaluation taught us that when implementing a plan of decentralization, it is beneficial to make a clear division of responsibilities; develop control instruments and an information infrastructure; improve the skills of managers; appoint a team responsible for implementing decentralization, and establish a joint forum for working out problems between central management and sub‐units; and clarify organizational policy on the central operational issues facing sub‐units. Expresses the hope that the conclusions drawn here will help other organizations in Israel and abroad in planning and implementing decentralization.

This research attempts to explain the decentralization of investment decision. To do so, it highlights the role of the internal capital market in the allocation of decision rights and control as a factor explaining the effectiveness of investment management. The authors aim to apply the theory of the organizational architecture to the investment decision to understand its complexity and its efficiency.

An empirical test was realized on a sample of 63 Tunisian firms using the methods of canonical correlation and cross tabulations.

Even if organizational complexity has a linear and negative impact (opposite sign to what is expected) on the investment decision decentralization, which creates value, it appears that there is a positive association with the uncertainty of the environment, and a negative one with the scarcity and sharing of financial resources between units on the internal capital market.

The authors show that the role played by the internal capital market in the value creating requires the setting of a centralized organizational structure.