Efficiency in the public sector

摘要

Public services such as electricity, telecommunications, transport, water, law and order, and education are vital inputs for business activities and are also essential to the health and well being of the broader community. Over the last decade, Australian and international governments have become increasingly aware of the important influence that government services have on economic development and community welfare, and have introduced reforms to improve their productivity and effectiveness. However, public services are often difficult to measure because they are heterogeneous and multifaceted - law and order, for example. Thus, it is extremely challenging to derive measures of world best practice for government services, which hinders assessments of public sector reform.