Motivation, Agency, and Public Policy

Julian Le Grand is the Richard Titmuss Professor of Social Policy at the London School of Economics. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine, a Founding Academician of the Academy of Learned Societies for the Social Sciences and a Senior Associate of the Kings Fund. He has acted as an advisor and consultant to the World Bank, the European Commission, the World Health Organisation, The Cabinet Office at No.10 Downing Street, HM Treasury, the UK Departments of Health and Social Security and the National Audit Office on health policy, welfare policy and social exclusion. He is the author, co-author or editor of twelve books and over ninety articles and book chapters on public policy, including health.

• Preface ; 1. Introduction: Motivation, Agency, and Public Policy ; PART I: THEORY: FROM KNAVE TO KNIGHT ; 2. Knights and Knaves in the Public Sector: What do we Mean and What do we Know? ; 3. Motivation and the Public Context ; 4. Knight and Knave: A Theory of Public Service Motivation ; PART II: FROM PAWN TO QUEEN ; 5. Agency and Public Services ; 6. Agency and Public Finance ; PART III: POLICY ; 7. Health Care ; 8. School Education ; 9. A Demogrant ; 10. Partnership Savings ; 11. Hypothecation ; Epilogue: Doux Commerce Publique

This important book develops a number of arguments ... The book is bold and ambitious in the way that it moves from concepts to policies ... The book is also powerful and compelling in its advocacy of quasi-markets ... works best as an analysis of how the diverse motivations of welfare providers can be channelled to ensure that benefits and services are both delivered more efficiently and become more responsive to the needs and aspirations of those who receive them.