Animal Health Policy and Practice: Scaling-up Community-based Animal Health Systems, Lessons from Human Health

In an extensive literature review, the author develops policy recommendations to facilitate scaling up community-based animal health systems to the national level. Noting that human and animal health services in rural areas have much in common, and that an extensive literature studies policy regarding primary healthcare for humans exists, she surveys that literature for observations and conclusions applicable to policy analysis of primary animal healthcare. She notes differences in the history and development of the two delivery systems. The push for human health services came with a worldwide initiative agreed at a high level in 1978. Health for All was set out as a moral imperative, and programmes have been strongly top-down. Delivery of animal health services, by contrast, has been viewed mainly in terms of economic development, and community-based systems have been cobbled together bottom-up, with NGOs taking the lead. As a result, community animal health workers are not integrated into national systems, and how they are trained and monitored varies even within districts. More broadly, the author details regional differences in community-based animal healthcare initiatives. Whereas in Asia there is considerable government involvement, private practitioners hold much more sway in East Africa. Although the literature is sparse on West Africa and Latin America, professional acceptance of community health workers appears to be high in both regions. The core of the paper is devoted to elaborating six criteria for assessing community-based animal health systems, which the author adapts from studies on primary healthcare systems for humans. She argues that the criteria equity, efficiency, accessibility of services, quality of services, human resources and financial resources must be addressed when scaling-up community-based programmes. The author recommends that policymakers clearly state their national animal health objectives and encourage dialogue between NGOs and existing national structures to allow better coordination of efforts and more equitable and consistent delivery of animal health services in rural areas. She adds that bringing community animal health workers into institutional frameworks and agreeing a standard training curriculum would improve equity in the distribution of benefits.Livestock Production/Industries,

Tenure, Wage Profiles and Monitoring

We undertake the first empirical investigation of the relationship between the slope of the wagetenure profile and the level of monitoring. On the assumption that firms strive for the optimal trade-off between these various instruments, we hypothesise that increased monitoring leads to a decline in the slope of the wagetenure profile. Our empirical analysis, using two cross sections of matched employer-employee British data, provides robust support for this prediction.efficiency wages; tenure; monitoring

Can we rehabilitate the guilds? A sceptical re-appraisal

This paper examines recent attempts to rehabilitate pre-modern craft guilds as efficient economic institutions. Contrary to rehabilitation views, craft guilds adversely affected quality, skills, and innovation. Guild rent-seeking imposed deadweight losses on the economy and generated no demonstrable positive externalities. Industry flourished where guilds decayed. Despite impairing efficiency, guilds persisted because they redistributed resources to powerful groups. The ‘rehabilitation’ view of guilds, it concludes, is theoretically contradictory and empirically untenable

Tenure, Wage Profiles and Monitoring

Efficiency wage theory predicts that firms can induce worker effort by the carrot of high wages and / or the stick of monitoring worker performance. Another option available to firms is to tilt the remuneration package over time such that the lure of high future earnings acts as a deterrent to current shirking. In this paper we undertake the first empirical investigation of this relationship between the slope of the wage-tenure profile and the level of monitoring. On the assumption that firms strive for the optimal trade-off between these various instruments, we hypothesise that increased monitoring leads to a decline in the slope of the wage-tenure profile. Our empirical analysis, using two cross sections of matched employer-employee British data, provides robust support for this prediction.Monitoring, Tenure, Efficiency, Wages.

Policies to increase workers skills

Different training policies can serve different objectives. Institutional arrangements to foster cost-sharing can efficiently increase access to formal, accredited and well-recognised training with little burden for the public budget. Co-financing policies that increase the incentive for firms might reduce the possible impact of market failures on aggregate training provision and can be easily financed through specific corporate levies. However, these policies cannot reach those groups that are less likely to receive employer-sponsored training. In this case, co-financing policies targeted to individual demand might become necessary. However, these policies are expensive and might result in substantial waste of public resources if they are not accompanied by interventions to reduce imperfections in the training market.Design is, however, crucial, and it is possible to identify some general principles concerning the desirable characteristics of training policies. Yet, too little is known on their relative efficiency with respect to other potential instruments, due to lack of rigorous evaluation analysis. Hence, taking also into account the methodological complexity of ex-post assessment in this area, evaluation mechanisms should be included into policy design to ensure timely corrections of policy mistakes.training policy

Market Failures and the Under-Provision of Training

This paper reviews both the theoretical underpinnings and the empirical evidence in support of the under-provision of training. While there is little if any evidence in support of under-provision because of liquidity constraints to the demand side of the market, there is evidence that employers provide and pay for general training, and that the provision of skills encourages labor turnover. The combination of these two facts suggests that the labor market provides less training than optimal. The balance of the existing empirical evidence suggests that policy discussions should focus on the employer rather than on employees. Therefore, we conclude our review by discussing policies which affect the employer’ marginal benefits and marginal costs of training.training, efficiency, turnover

Employer Training and Skill Shortages: A Review of the State of Knowledge With Recommendations for Future Research by the Department of Labor

This report proposes that the Department of Labor undertake a program of research designed to inform the policy debate related to skill shortages and the role of employer training in ameliorating them. The paper reviews the currently available evidence and then proposes new research on seven questions