Assessing Public Spending Efficiency in 20 OECD Countries

Abstract

We follow the framework of Afonso et al. (Public Choice, 123(3–4):321–47, 2005), to look at the public expenditure of 20 OECD countries for the period 2009–2013, from an efficiency perspective. We construct Public Sector Performance and Public Sector Efficiency indicators and use Data Envelopment Analysis. The results show that the only country that performed on the efficiency frontier is Switzerland, Canada, Japan, Luxembourg and the United States are also more efficient performers. The average input-oriented efficiency score is equal to 0.732. That is, on average countries could have reduced the level of public expenditure by 26.8% and still achieved the same level of public performance. The average output-oriented efficiency score is 0.769 denoting that on average the sample countries could have increased their performance by 23.1% by employing the same level of public expenditure.