Public Sector Performance

Abstract

The performance of the public sector of national economies is a crucial factor in the race to achieve the goals in the Lisbon Agenda. It is therefore useful to relate differences in performance in education, health care, law and order, and public administration to differences in resource use and national institutions. The present report compares the performance of public services in the twenty-five EU member states and in four non-EU Anglo-Saxon countries. Observed differences in the productivity, quality and effectiveness of public services logically lead to the question of how they come about. Can countries learn from each other and can they improve their public sector performance by adopting best practices found in other nations?