Measuring The Performance Of Federal Agencies And Programs In The Usa: An Overview And Some Reflections

In this paper, I provide an overview of some of the issues surrounding the measurement of government performance, focusing on the case of the U.S. federal government. After defining government performance and introducing the challenge of measuring it, I examine how this challenge is being addressed at the federal level in the United States. I argue that performance measurement is particularly difficult in this context because under the American constitution, agencies respond to multiple principals, in particular the president and Congress, which often have diverging preferences. I introduce congressional and presidential performance measurement initiatives, especially the Government Performance and Results Act including its recent reform, the Obama administration’s high priority performance goals, and the George W. Bush administration’s Program Assessment Rating Tool. I conclude with a brief review of potential undesired agency response to targets (such as the high priority performance goals), drawing on Christopher Hood’s research on gaming. I thank the Academy of Economic Studies, Faculty of Administration and Public Management for inviting me to present this paper as keynote speaker at its conference held in Bucharest, Romania, on June 21-22, 2011, and I thank Rob Greer for helpful research assistance.