IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/pubmgr/v11y2009i1p39-56.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

International Comparisons of Public Sector Performance

Author

Listed:
  • Steven Van de Walle

Abstract

Measuring and comparing the overall performance of countries' public sectors requires agreement on definitions and objectives of government. I argue that such an agreement is about finding a consensus rather than about finding better definitions. Measuring government requires a number of leaps of faith , where certain definitions, assumptions and statistics are accepted as good enough for measurement and comparison. The political science and economic research community have a different tradition of dealing with such agreements and leaps of faith, and this is reflected in their approaches to measuring and comparing the performance of public sectors. The implications of these traditions are particularly visible in the usefulness of measurement and indicators for policy makers.

Suggested Citation

  • Steven Van de Walle, 2009. "International Comparisons of Public Sector Performance," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(1), pages 39-56, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:pubmgr:v:11:y:2009:i:1:p:39-56
    DOI: 10.1080/14719030802493254
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/14719030802493254
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/14719030802493254?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Heinz Handler & Bertrand Koebel & Philipp Reiss & Margit Schratzenstaller, 2005. "The size and performance of public sector activities in Europe," Public Economics 0507011, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. António Afonso & Ludger Schuknecht & Vito Tanzi, 2005. "Public sector efficiency: An international comparison," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 123(3), pages 321-347, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Graeme A. Hodge, 2010. "Reviewing Public–Private Partnerships: Some Thoughts on Evaluation," Chapters, in: Graeme A. Hodge & Carsten Greve & Anthony E. Boardman (ed.), International Handbook on Public–Private Partnerships, chapter 5, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. Graeme A. Hodge, 2013. "Rethinking the state through the lens of regulatory governance," Chapters, in: John Farrar & David G. Mayes (ed.), Globalisation, the Global Financial Crisis and the State, chapter 9, pages 197-217, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. David Hulme & Antonio Savoia & Kunal Sen, 2015. "Governance as a Global Development Goal? Setting, Measuring and Monitoring the Post-2015 Development Agenda," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 6(2), pages 85-96, May.
    4. Hodge, Graeme & McCallum, Tara, 2017. "Public innovation: An Australian regulatory case study," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 20-29.
    5. Antonio Savoia & Kunal Sen, 2015. "Measurement, Evolution, Determinants, And Consequences Of State Capacity: A Review Of Recent Research," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 441-458, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Heinz Handler & Margit Schratzenstaller, 2006. "Teilstudie 7: Die Rolle des Staates," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 27446, February.
    2. Onofrei, Mihaela & Lupu, Dan, 2010. "The dimension of public administration in Central and Eastern European countries in the current financial crisis," MPRA Paper 95513, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Sotiris Theodoropoulos, 2012. "Seeking a sustainable size and structure for the Greek public sector’s activities according to the fiscal pact for Euro," SPOUDAI Journal of Economics and Business, SPOUDAI Journal of Economics and Business, University of Piraeus, vol. 62(3-4), pages 75-92, July - De.
    4. World Bank, 2015. "Central America Social Expenditures and Institutional Review," World Bank Publications - Reports 22672, The World Bank Group.
    5. António Afonso & José Alves, 2023. "Are fiscal consolidation episodes helpful for public sector efficiency?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(31), pages 3547-3560, July.
    6. Kelbesa Megersa & Danny Cassimon, 2015. "Public Debt, Economic Growth, and Public Sector Management in Developing Countries: Is There a Link?," Public Administration & Development, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 35(5), pages 329-346, December.
    7. Ionela Munteanu & Adriana Grigorescu & Elena Condrea & Elena Pelinescu, 2020. "Convergent Insights for Sustainable Development and Ethical Cohesion: An Empirical Study on Corporate Governance in Romanian Public Entities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-17, April.
    8. Antonio Afonso & Hüseyin Sen & Ayse Kaya, 2021. "Government Size, Unemployment and Inflation Nexus in Eight Large Emerging Market Economies," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 235(1), pages 133-170, March.
    9. Amir B. Ferreira Neto & Joshua C. Hall, 2019. "Economies of scale and governance of library systems: evidence from West Virginia," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 237-253, September.
    10. Brijesh C. Purohit, 2015. "Efficiency in Education Sector: A Case of Rajasthan State (India)," Working Papers 2015-121, Madras School of Economics,Chennai,India.
    11. Ant—nio Afonso & Ludger Schuknecht & Vito Tanzi, 2023. "The size of government," Chapters, in: António Afonso & João Tovar Jalles & Ana Venâncio (ed.), Handbook on Public Sector Efficiency, chapter 1, pages 6-31, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    12. Ascari, Guido & Rankin, Neil, 2007. "Perpetual youth and endogenous labor supply: A problem and a possible solution," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 708-723, December.
    13. Christl, Michael & Köppl-Turyna, Monika & Kucsera, Dénes, 2018. "Public sector efficiency in Europe: Long-run trends, recent developments and determinants," Working Papers 14, Agenda Austria.
    14. Long Qian & Yunjie Zhou & Ying Sun, 2023. "Regional Differences, Distribution Dynamics, and Convergence of the Green Total Factor Productivity of China’s Cities under the Dual Carbon Targets," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-26, August.
    15. Gaspar, Ví­tor & Afonso, António, 2006. "Excess burden and the cost of inefficiency in public services provision," Working Paper Series 601, European Central Bank.
    16. Philippe K. Widmer & Peter Zweifel, 2008. "Public Good Provision in a Federalist Country: Tiebout Competition, Fiscal Equalization, and Incentives for Efficiency in Switzerland," SOI - Working Papers 0804, Socioeconomic Institute - University of Zurich, revised Dec 2010.
    17. Alimi, R. Santos, 2018. "Growth effect of government expenditures in West African countries: A nonlinear framework," MPRA Paper 99108, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Mar 2019.
    18. Utpal Kumar De & Christopher P. P. Shafuda, 2023. "Performance and Efficiency of Public Sector in Independent Namibia," South Asian Journal of Macroeconomics and Public Finance, , vol. 12(2), pages 160-185, December.
    19. Hyeri Choi & Min Jae Park, 2019. "Evaluating the Efficiency of Governmental Excellence for Social Progress: Focusing on Low- and Lower-Middle-Income Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 141(1), pages 111-130, January.
    20. Maria Ciubotaru & Vasile Hincu, 2016. "Implementing Performance-Based Budgeting in Republic of Moldova," Risk in Contemporary Economy, "Dunarea de Jos" University of Galati, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, pages 267-272.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:pubmgr:v:11:y:2009:i:1:p:39-56. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RPXM20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.