Acquired Incentivo-Deficiency Syndrome

The government has it

This is an archived blog post from The Acorn.

Why a government with an A-list of economists and reformers failed to deliver a tenth of the expectations and a thousandth of its promises: Because it suffers from Government AIDS, The Rational Fool:

The virus causes in everyone along the chain of command in the government, AIDS Acquired Incentivo-Deficiency Syndrome. Government AIDS, in its milder form, causes lethargy and breeds do-nothings through a variety of afflictions, including nepotism, reservation, and sycophancy. In its more virulent form, it causes the cancer of corruption.

Either Mr. Chidambaram is being disingenuous in blaming the bureaucracy, or he has no clue about the advances made in the economics of incentives during the last 50 years. [The Rational Fool]Related Link: Corruption Misunderstood: Why blame the middleman? My op-ed in yesterday’s Mint, It’s done with incentives, not platitudes, an earlier post; Atanu Dey, Amit Varma and Andy Mukherjee on the why the NREGS will guarantee rural corruption.

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