ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book offers a more nuanced account of public service efficiency than is typically presented in either policy debates or scholarly work on the topic. It illustrates the ways in which expanded conception of efficiency can capture how the daily work of public managers involves decisions about the use of scarce resources. The book brings a wide range of ideas about the problems, policies and prospects of public service efficiency, and provides the most thorough reflection to date on how it has been, and should be, pursued. It explores the role of the different dimensions plays in the theory and practice of public administration. It also examines approaches to measuring and managing productive, distributive, dynamic and allocative efficiency. The book suggests that governments tend to rely on three main strategies for improving allocative efficiency: citizen voice opportunities, choice mechanisms and procedural fairness.
