Does Corruption Affect Health and Education Outcomes in the Philippines?

Abstract:     
We examine the effect of corruption in municipal governments on health and education outcomes in the Philippines. We find that corruption lowers the immunization rate of children, delays the vaccination of newborns, prevents the treatment of patients, discourages the use of public health clinics, reduces satisfaction of households with public health services, and increases waiting time of patients at health clinics. Corruption also has a negative effect on education outcomes: it reduces test scores, lowers national ranking of schools, raises variation of test scores within schools and reduces satisfaction ratings. We also find that corruption affects public services in rural areas in different ways than urban areas, and that corruption harms the poor more than the wealthy

Number of Pages in PDF File: 48

Keywords: Corruption, decentralization, health care, education, service delivery

JEL Classification: H4, I1, I2

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