Public sector efficiency: leveling the playing field between?OECD countries

In this paper we seek a robust methodology for the measurement of the relative public sector efficiency of 19 OECD countries over the period 1980?C2000. We estimate relative efficiency scores for five disaggregated accounts of public spending as well as for aggregate public spending. Then, we use a semi-parametric econometric method to isolate the impact of government inefficiency from the inefficiency arising from the socioeconomic environment and luck. To verify the validity of our index, we use it to examine a number of well-established relationships in the public choice literature, which have only been tested using local government data.     

Banishing Bureaucracy or Hatching a Hybrid? The CanadianFood Inspection Agency and the Politics of Reinventing Government

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is a means to overcoming long-standing bureaucratic politics while attaining some major policy ends.Contrary to some of the new public management bravado of transforming the public sector, the CFIA is not a bureaucratic revolution in reshaping the Canadian State. Changes in scientific staffing, funding, and inspection have been more incremental than fundamental. Moreover, the CFIA is something less than the special and separate operating agency models discussed in the alternative service delivery literature in terms of autonomy and market orientation, but something more autonomous and entrepreneurial than traditional government departments. These organizational and managerial reforms are modest extensions providing a means for achieving economies and enhanced effectiveness in carrying out the mandate of safety, consumer protection, and market access for Canadian food, animal, plant, and forestry products.     

An empirical investigation of determinants of corporate social performance using multi-dimensional panel data analysis

An assessment of the determinants of corporate social performance (CSP) in emerging economies is still too fractured. This article contributes to general management literature by developing an empirical model based on the existing theoretical models rooted in neo-institutional theory (legitimacy approach), stakeholders management theory, agency theory, the resource-based view of the firm, slack resources argument, and managerial control theory. A robust, multidimensional, unweighted disclosure index was used to measure CSP. This article provides a methodologically and empirically more rigorous assessment of determinants of CSP compared to previous studies by performing panel data regression analysis on 307 firms for 10 years. The results reveal that the presence of a legal framework, board attributes (board size, board diversity, board interlocking), women on board, ownership pattern, financial performance, firm attributes (size, age, leverage), and industry characteristics affect CSP significantly. These findings provide very important clues to design pragmatic strategies to improve CSP.     

Efficiency of subnational government expenditure towards elementary education and nutrition: Bootstrap data envelopment analysis for India

The need of translating increasing outlays into better outcomes on various public programmes has attracted the attention of researchers worldwide to focus more on the quality of public spending, often assessed in terms of its efficiency. The present article is a contribution to the existing literature on the subject in that it assesses the efficiency of government expenditure of Indian states for two most basic social services—elementary education and nutrition during 2014–2015 and 2018–2019 using data envelopment analysis and Malmquist productivity index techniques, in both input-oriented as well as output-oriented settings under variable returns to scale assumption; it constructs the average performance index for children at elementary education and malnutrition index for women and children to utilise them as output indicators; and it adopts a robust bootstrap truncated regression procedure to avoid various econometric issues while estimating the impact of selected environmental factors on bias-corrected inefficiency scores. The major findings of this article seem to suggest that, while states should be provided greater flexibility in their fiscal operations, they have to complement their fiscal autonomy with good governance to improve the efficiency of their spending on basic social services. Towards this end, states like Bihar, Jharkhand and those belonging to North-Eastern and Himalayan regions need special attention with a different set of development policies.     

Canadian Federal-Provincial Overlap and Presumed Government Inefficiency

It is often claimed that overlapping government activity inCanada's federal system causes significant government inefficiency.The three major studies on the subject have demonstrated theexistence of extensive overlap, but they resort to qualitativearguments and anecdotal evidence to conclude either that overlapcauses significant government inefficiency (the traditionalprovincial position) or that overlap is fairly well managed(the traditional federal position). Thus, the debate about overlapremains essentially a debate about federal and provincial power,not about efficiency. This is apparently unavoidable, due tothe difficulty of measuring the effect of overlap on efficiency.     

Exemption or Taxation for Profits of Non-Profits? An Answer from a Model Incorporating Managerial Discretion

Many non-profit organizations engage in bothcharitable and purely commercial activities, whereprofits from the latter are used to finance theformer. Should business income be tax-exempted becauseof its cross-subsidization function? The effects ofexemption on the product mix are analysed, using amodel incorporating managerial discretion – acrucially different assumption from that of thecurrent literature. Under given assumptions,tax-exemption of commercial income emerges as a lessefficient means of supporting the charitable productthan alternative Government measures, such as anoutput subsidy.

     

Fiscal Federalism for Emerging Economies: Lessons from Switzerland?

Switzerland is one of the most non-centralized countries inthe world. A groining literature is examining the economic effectsof tax competition between the 26 Swiss cantons. Despite therelative success of Swiss federalism, most federal countriesfollow the principles of coordinated rather than competitivefederalism. We identify the institutional preconditions forwell-functioning competitive federalism in Switzerland. Thesecond part deals with the applicability of the Swiss experiencefor emerging economies in Latin America. The analysis recognizesthat most institutions identified to be crucial in the Swisscase are missing in Latin America. This leads to the policyconclusion that competitive federalism can only produce itspositive effects under certain institutional circumstances.These circumstances are often not considered when introducinglax competition in emerging economies.     

Upgrading the managerial process of small entrepreneurs in West Africa

In spite of their contribution to employment and value-added of the economies of West African countries, the future of small enterprises depends on their financial viability. To this management efficiency makes a crucial contribution and available empirical evidence surveyed in this article shows major weaknesses in it. Often the right motivations are lacking, problems are ill-defined and record keeping as a major tool of information gathering and analysis is not practised. It is argued that more detailed investigation of the managerial processes of these enterprises should be undertaken as a basis for innovating in management practices in a way that is adapted to the needs and circumstances of the heterogenous types of small enterprises in West Africa. It is also suggested that facilities available for management training are too centralized adequately to reach rural towns and villages. A decentralized approach to extension should make training facilities more accessible to larger numbers of small entrepreneurs. The inclusion of management training in the traditional apprenticeship system and in the curricula of government trade and vocational training centres would also bring benefits.     

Capacity,Leadership, and Organizational Performance: Testing the Black Box Model of Public Management

According to recent “black box” models of public management, managerial capacity is a critical component for achieving service delivery improvement. In particular, black box models assume that the impact of management systems is maximized through integration with effective leadership. This assumption is tested by analyzing the effects of managerial capacity and organizational leadership on the performance of English local governments, while controlling for a range of other variables, including organizational size, resources, external constraints, and past performance. Empirical results show that capacity possesses a positive statistical association with local government performance and that leadership can enhance the impact of effective management systems.     

Empirical evaluation of bureaucratic models of inefficiency

Two separate but related strands of literature exist regarding the efficiency of public sector service provision – the theoretical base developed in the bureaucratic models of supply and the methodological base developed in the operations research and economic literatures. Most analyses focus exclusively on either the measurement or causes of inefficiency. This paper seeks to empirically test bureaucratic models of supply by drawing on the measurement literature. In anticipation of the results, it is found that there does exist empirical evidence supporting some of the implications of these models.     

The Impacts of Employee Benefits,Procedural Justice,and Managerial Trustworthiness on Work Attitudes: Integrated Understanding Based on Social Exchange Theory

Recent public management literature has emphasized the influence of human resource management (HRM) policies, including traditional benefits, family‐friendly benefits, procedural justice, and managerial trustworthiness, on work attitudes. However, little research in public administration has explored more detailed impacts of each HRM policy. This article provides an integrated understanding of the impacts of HRM policies using social exchange theory. In addition, the moderating impacts of procedural justice and managerial trustworthiness on the relationship between employee benefits and work attitudes are examined. Using the Federal Human Capital Survey 2008 data set, the authors find that two types of employee benefits, procedural justice, and managerial trustworthiness are positively related to job satisfaction, whereas family‐friendly benefits, managerial trustworthiness, and procedural justice are negatively associated with turnover intention. The implications of these findings are thoroughly discussed.     

The Size Efficiency of Rural Governments: The Case of Low-Volume Rural Roads

The deterioration of the supply of public infrastructure throughoutthe United States has been found to be accelerating. The reasonmost often cited for the increasing rates of deterioration isthe lack of available funding, or fiscal stress, present inmany local governments. A popular short-term solution to fiscalstress is to defer infrastructure repairs and/or replacementprograms. This is particularly true in rural areas where a decliningagricultural base and redirected federal policy have placedsignificant downward pressure on revenues. The search for along-term solution has renewed the debate about the optimalsize of local governments. The research reported here examinesthe issue of size efficiency in the production of low-volumerural roads in the Midwest. At issue is the ability of Midwesttownships to realize size economies. Overall, size inefficiencieswere identified which suggests that cost savings may be realizedfrom the reorganization of the production of low-volume roadservices.     

Back to the Future? Senior Federal Executives in the United States

Based on findings from the 1970s, research literature on senior government executives emphasized a growing integration of politics and administration. This integration was reflected in what we called the "Image IV" bureaucrat wherein political role traits combined with those of traditional bureaucratic ones. Although this was by no means a dominant trend, we were led to speculate that traditional divisions between political and bureaucratic roles were eroding. Data gathered from the 1980s and 1990s, however, lead us to infer that divisions between political and bureaucratic roles have reasserted themselves and that integration between them is being diminished rather than strengthened. We conclude that this may be because in an era of governmental austerity the demand for executive policy entrepreneurs has slackened while the political needs have shifted to those of managerial control over an inertial or even contracting state.     

Beyond the Social Market: Rethinking Capitalism and Public Policy

Despite its worthy motives, social market philosophy provides neither a useful analytical framework for understanding modern capitalism, nor the policy tools to address our present economic and social predicament. The concept of ‘market failure’, with its underlying assumption of market equilibrium, does not capture the systemically adverse outcomes of collective market forces. A more sophisticated understanding of capitalist economies, and the societies in which they exist, would recognise that the market economy is a dynamic but not self‐regulating system. It is embedded in, and impacts on, four other economies – of the natural environment, of family and care, of voluntary association, and of the public sector – which operate under different motivations and allocative principles. The role of government is central, to balance the values created by different kinds of institutions and to constrain the dynamic impacts of market forces. A number of policy conclusions are offered arising from this framework.     

Personnel Constraints in Public Organizations: The Impact of Reward and Punishment on Organizational Performance

In recent years, many public sector reforms have attempted to loosen personnel constraints on the assumption that more managerial flexibility will increase organizational performance. The authors mount an empirical study to test this assumption using data taken from English local government authorities. Personnel constraints are operationalized using Rainey's long‐standing measures of the concept. Statistical results from multiple regression analyses indicate that “difficulty in removing poor managers” is harmful to organizational performance, but “difficulty in rewarding good managers” has no effect. The authors delve inside the organizational hierarchy and find that attitudes toward personnel constraints vary by organizational level and managerial rank: for example, frontline managers feel more constrained overall, while senior managers’ perceptions of constraints are more closely linked to organizational performance but in some unexpected ways. The implications of these findings, including the fact that personnel constraints have varying impacts on organizational performance, are considered.     

State Poverty Rates: Do the New Welfare Policies Make a Difference?

This article uses four models to identify the best predictors of state poverty levels and changes in state poverty rates since the implementation of welfare reform. The policy decisions based on the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) by the states are tested along with more traditional variables identified in the literature. Using several measures of state poverty, the analysis finds that those states with the lowest poverty rates are those with the healthiest economies, and the most generous state spending on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). States with the highest percentage of their TANF rolls made up of black citizens tend to have the highest rates of poverty. Initial poverty rates are found to be important in that states with higher initial poverty levels are capable of generating a larger reduction in poverty than states with lower initial rates. With the exception of limited evidence on sanctions, none of the PRWORA–based policies were found to have any effect on poverty rates.     

Soviet venality: A rent-seeking model of the communist state

While the recent Fall of Communism has focused the interest of economists on the admittedly fascinating problems associated with the ongoing economic reform process, the study of the functioning of actual communist economies still seems mired in the conventional model of central planning. This model is predicated on the assumption that communist rulers are unselfish drones who single-mindedly maximize the public interest. Our article proposes an alternative, public choice model. We suggest that the Soviet-style system represents a modern incarnation of the mercantilist economies of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe, and that venality, not ideology, drives these economies in practice.     

Jurisdictional Integrity, Polycentrism, and the Design of Democratic Governance

Political and managerial processes are creating polycentric networks that transcend the traditional ideas of jurisdictional integrity in state-centric systems. Jurisdictional integrity refers to the political and legal competence of a unit of government to operate within a spatial and functional realm. An intrinsic element of jurisdictional integrity in a democratic system is that citizens are enabled to give consent to and pass judgment on the exercise of authority by that governmental entity. The concept of jurisdictional integrity is shown to apply differentially in relation to the traditional institutions of government in comparison with the emergent complex of quasi-governmental agencies, special purpose bodies and multi-organizational collaborations. Distinctions are drawn between club, agency and polity entities within this emergent organizational field. Problems to be faced in the design of institutions for network governance under conditions of polycentrism are identified and solutions reviewed. The potential of consociationalism to enable collective decision making across a polycentric system is highlighted. Informal norms are shown to be essential in enabling such a system for network governance to operate effectively.     

中国地方政府绩效外部民主评议模式——对南京市“万人评议机关”再研究

通过绩效评估可以提高政府效率，促使政府更好地承担社会管理、公共服务等各项职能。对于地方政府，外部民主评议模式比传统的上级政府外部监督模式更具针对性和可操作性。中国现阶段通过民主评议的方式可以扩大民泉有序地参与政治，推动地方政府更积极地承担地方建设发展责任，而不是一味靠上级政府的压力与刺激进行地方治理。