Health and education in poorer countries are now markets, not just public services

A new paper finds that health and education services in many poorer countries now operate like competitive markets. This means people choose between many private and public providers, and these providers compete for customers.

For years, development agencies and governments in poorer countries designed health and education policies as if services were mostly public. This paper shows that market forces are already deeply embedded, which means policies must now account for competition and consumer choice.