ABSTRACT
I ntroduction All governments have an interest in better meeting the public's needs by maximising the value for money of public expenditure on health services . Economists distinguish two ways of improving value for money, namely allocative efficiency or 'doing the right things' and technical efficiency or 'doing things right' ( i . e . at the lowest cost for a given quality and quantity of output) . This chapter reviews the contribution of analysis to improving the measurement and monitoring of technical efficiency in the NHS . A subsequent chapter con siders allocative efficiency.
