This article reviews the New Public Management (NPM) literature in Central and Eastern Europe with the aim of assessing whether reforms have 'worked'. Increasingly academics have tended to argue against the suitability of NPM instruments in this region. To understand the impact of this much-debated policy, we first propose a classification of the impacts of NPM geared to the realities of Central and Eastern European states. Then we use this classification to carefully review empirical studies across the region over the past ten years. Unlike much of the recent academic literature, we suggest that NPM can work. NPM policy has not always been successful to the extent expected and promoted, but there is enough evidence to show that some of the central ideas in NPM have led to improvements in public service organization or provision across different organizational settings. An adequate degree of administrative capacity, sustained reform over time and a 'fitting context' are the main factors which can tip the scale for the success of these management instruments. The paper provides a fresh and transparent assessment of a major administrative development in a growing region with implications for other parts of the world that experience similar challenges and opportunities.

This paper reports an analysis of 519 studies describing the impacts of NPMtype reforms across Europe. The aim was to establish whether performance-oriented reforms had led to changes in outputs and/or outcomes. This was thus a test of a central proposition in NPM theory. A number of significant conceptual and methodological problems were immediately apparent, and we describe our route through them. In conclusion, one principal finding is that although the population of studies is large, the number of high quality studies that focus on outputs is quite modest and the set addressing outcomes is very small. Another finding is that the identified impacts are distinctly 'mixed', with substantial proportions of studies indicating that specified outputs or outcomes are unchanged or 'down'. Significantly, the database examines contextual influences which facilitate (or hinder) NPM reforms.Despite enormous attention, our understanding of the impacts of NPM remains both fragmentary and fragile.

This paper reviews the New Public Management (NPM) literature on the effects of the creation and ongoing operations of agencies across European public sectors. It finds that the bulk of evidence concerns internal effects on processes/activities of agency creation and management and little evidence on outputs and outcomes. The article identifies a number of patterns across the sample reviewed and finds positive effects on improved processes, and an orientation towards results and service users' needs. Similarly, it finds improvements in transparency and accountability across various countries, but evidence in these areas is less clear. It finds that 46% of the studies included in the sample identified concerns about fragmentation, coordination or organizational stability and shows that unintended consequences are an important part of the evaluation of the effects of agencification. The paper argues that the picture of the effects of agencies is nuanced and discusses possible factors that can tip the balance for or against the success of the agency model.

Diacylglycerol acyltransferase 1 (DGAT1) is considered a key marker in milk production traits at bovines. Recently, several studies were conducted on sheeps and goats to reveal possible single nucleotide polymorpshims (SNPs) that might in luence the production and could help in individual selection. The study was conducted on 50 ewes from the Turcana breed and 60 goats from the Carpatian breed rasied in Transylvania mountain area. The method applied was PCR-RFLP with AluI enzyme. The results revealed no polymorphism in exon 14-16 at Carpatian goats, leading us to the conclusion that sequencying should be applied as method for further SNP detection. In exon 17 a previously reported mutation (C-T) was identi ied and three corresponding genotypes (CC, CT and TT). No statistically signi icant differences were found among these three genotypes in what concerns the fat percent in milk. We concluded that further investigations are needed in DGAT1 gene to detect possible SNP associated with milk production traits in these species.