The Growth Of The Public Sector

This important new book offers fresh insights into the growth of the public sector in advanced and developing economies. The economic causes and consequences of changes in the size of the public sector (especially changes in public expenditure) have fascinated economists from the time of Adam Smith. From the early 1960s, interest has focused particularly on changes in the share of national income devoted to public expenditure. This has exhibited a long-run upward trend since 1945 in almost all OECD countries. Substantial fluctuations over shorter periods have also been observed. Understanding the processes underlying these phenomena is of clear importance for public policy makers, and economists have developed numerous theories attempting to explain them. The major questions of interest are: what 'forces' have been causing the share of public expenditure in GDP to rise over the longer term? Are these forces susceptible to policy? Is the public sector taking an increasing share of 'real' resources? Can government attempts in major OECD countries to control or reduce the size of the public sector in the 1980s and 1990s be sustained? What consequences follow from their success or failure? The Growth of the Public Sector focuses on this important issue and assesses the contribution to current knowledge of different theories including public choice, bureaucracy models, relative price effects and Wagner's Law. It also contains a number of new case studies focusing on specific government activities such as education, health and social security.

Public sector innovation does not happen by itself: problems need to be identified, and ideas translated into projects that can be tested, implemented and shared. This report looks at how governments can create an environment that fosters innovation.

Twenty-first century governments must keep pace with the expectations of their citizens and deliver on the promise of the digital age. Data-driven approaches are particularly effective for meeting those expectations and rethinking the way governments and citizens interact. This report highlights the important role data can play in creating conditions that improve public services, increase the effectiveness of public spending and inform ethical and privacy considerations. It presents a data-driven public sector framework that can help countries or organisations assess the elements needed for using data to make better-informed decisions across public sectors.

There is unlikely to be agreement about why government grows (much less whether or not this is beneficial) until there is some clearer notion of what is to be measured. Public revenues and expenditures are surely not sufficient to reflect the scope of the public sector, but what should be included? A distinguished international group of scholars consider the number of people employed, the extent of services performed, the quantity of laws enacted, and the degree of regulation enforced. @3`...the book marks a significant step forward for a body of research that has typically been more concerned with normative and theoretical issues.' -- Journal of Policy Analysis & Management, Summer 1984 @3`This scho

The Third Edition of this successful textbook introduces students to the major concepts, models, and approaches surrounding the public sector. Now fully updated to include coverage of the New Public Management (NPM), The Public Sector is the most comprehensive textbook on theories of public policy and public administration. The Public Sector is introduced within a three-part framework: public resource allocation, redistribution and regulation. Jan-Erik Lane explains the basic concepts of each of these broad areas, and goes on to examine their consequences for various approaches to the making and implementation of public policy. The book explores models of management, effectiveness and

This report, produced by the OECD Observatory of Public Sector Innovation, explores how systems approaches can be used in the public sector to solve complex or “wicked” problems.

The aim of this book is to provide a rather more comprehensive wide-ranging treatment of public sector economics than is usual. It deals with theory, policy and practice within the broad context of political economy and attempts a more general integration of them than is found in most other texts. It recognises that students invariably study other subjects simultaneously with economics, aiming to provide more of a multi-disciplinary approach than is usually the case. The book reflects the changing nature of 'public' in recognising that a textbook in this area has to be made less technical and mechanistic and more appreciative of political economy.