ABSTRACT

This conclusion presents some closing thoughts of key concepts discussed in the previous chapters of this book. The book demonstrates each dimension hints at weighty issues and wide repercussions. All four dimensions have been coined, and in some cases vigorously researched by others, albeit sometimes under different guises. There are good reasons to think that politicians and public managers too, are attuned to the four dimensions of efficiency. The day-to-day management of public services requires practitioners to juggle the priorities implicit in our four dimensions. Similarly, expenditures that make no reference to potential distributive or dynamic consequences have the potential to be self-defeating. It follows then that policies need to be designed and evaluated with reference to all four of our dimensions. Simple pressure on particular performance indicators whether inputs or outputs may lead to improvements in productive efficiency, but we need to consider their broader consequences in terms of distributive, dynamic and allocative efficiency.