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The quality and efficiency of public service delivery in the UK and China

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Abstract

In this paper we examine the efficiency of public service delivery at regional level in two countries, the UK and China. We introduce a method based on Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) which measures the aggregate country level inefficiency. This country level inefficiency is then decomposed into three components: 1) lack of best practices at regional level; 2) quality of the public service delivery; 3) potential efficiency gains realizable via reallocation of inputs across regions. Our empirical results show that UK and China behave very differently across these three dimensions. Most of UK inefficiency comes from the reallocation effect, while most of the Chinese inefficiency is attributable to lack of best practices. UK also shows higher levels of quality with respect to China. We speculate about the fiscal centralization/decentralization structure of the two countries as a possible explanation for such differences.

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  • Antonio Peyrache & Minyan Zhu, 2013. "The quality and efficiency of public service delivery in the UK and China," CEPA Working Papers Series WP052013, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    • Handle: RePEc:qld:uqcepa:88
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    Cited by:

    1. Shi, Jiangang & Dai, Xingying & Duan, Kaifeng & Li, Jiajia, 2023. "Exploring the performances and determinants of public service provision in 35 major cities in China from the perspectives of efficiency and effectiveness," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    2. 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.
    3. Thien-Vu Tran & Hosomi Shoichiro & Masayoshi Noguchi, 2023. "Inter-Jurisdictional Comparison of Public Asset Utilization in Tokyo Metropolitan Local Governments," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 197-218, March.

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