The paper reviews the empirical literature on the impact of decentralisations and provides a summary of the conclusions on its impacts on service delivery, corruption, fiscal management and growth. Decentralised public management continues to invite controversy and debate. Proponents of decentralisation consider it a panacea for reforming public sector in developing countries (Shah,1994, 1998) whereas opponents consider it as a road to wrecks and ruins (Tanzi, 1995).

These disagreements primarily arise from perspectives on the potential impact of such policies in the institutional environment of developing countries. Regrettably, the literature provides little guidance to inform this debate. This note is intended to fill a critical gap in this literature by providing a synthesis of the empirical literature on the impact of decentralisation.