Estache, AntonioGonzalez, MarianelaTrujillo, Lourdes2012-06-042012-06-042007-05https://hdl.handle.net/10986/7066All interested parties seem to agree that it is important to be able to monitor public sector performance at the sectoral level, but most current work based on multi-country databases does not lend itself to country-specific conclusions. This is due to a large extent to major data limitations both on sectoral expenditures and on sectoral outcomes. This paper discusses the related issues and shows what we can do with the current data inspite of the drastic limitations. The main conclusions of the paper are that any efforts to assess country-specific performances in relative terms are likely to be difficult in view of the data problems. A rough sense of performance across sectors can be estimated for groups of countries, allowing some modest benchmarking exercises. These estimates show that low-income countries generally lag significantly behind higher-income countries. Efficiency has improved during the 1990s in energy and education but has not improved significantly in transport.CC BY 3.0 IGOACCOUNTABILITYACCOUNTINGADJUSTMENT PROGRAMSAIRAIR TRAFFICAIRCRAFTALLOCATIONALLOCATION OF RESOURCESAVERAGE SHAREBENCHMARKBENCHMARKINGBENCHMARKSCAPCAPITAL EXPENDITURESCAPITAL STOCKCENTRAL GOVERNMENTCENTRAL GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURECIVIL SERVANTSCOMPETITION POLICYCONSTANT PRICESCOST-BENEFIT ANALYSISCOST-EFFECTIVENESSCOUNTRY LEVELCOUNTRY PERFORMANCECROSS-COUNTRY DATACROSS-COUNTRY STUDIESDATA ON CORRUPTIONDATA QUALITYDATA SETDECENTRALIZATIONDEREGULATIONDEVELOPED COUNTRIESDEVELOPING COUNTRIESDISTRIBUTION OF EXPENDITURESEDUCATION SERVICESEFFECTIVENESS OF SERVICE DELIVERYEFFICIENCY IMPROVEMENTSEFFICIENCY OF GOVERNMENT EXPENDITUREELASTICITIESEMPIRICAL APPLICATIONEMPIRICAL LITERATUREEXPENDITURE CATEGORIESEXPENDITURE DATAEXPENDITURE LEVELSFINANCIAL MARKETSFISCAL ADJUSTMENTFUELFUNCTIONAL FORMGDPGOVERNMENT EXPENDITURESGOVERNMENT FINANCEGOVERNMENT FINANCE STATISTICSGOVERNMENT PERFORMANCEHEALTH EXPENDITUREINCOMEINCOME GROUPSINCOME LEVELINCOME MEANINEFFICIENCYINFANT MORTALITYINFRASTRUCTURE SECTORINFRASTRUCTURE SERVICESINTERVENTIONLENGTH OF ROADLEVELS OF EFFICIENCYLIFE EXPECTANCYLOW INCOMEMONETARY DATAMORTALITY RATESMULTILATERAL DONORSNATIONAL POLICIESNEGATIVE TERMSOPERATIONAL EXPENDITURESOUTCOME DATAOUTCOME INDICATORSOUTCOME MEASURESOUTPUT INDICATORSPERFORMANCE ASSESSMENTSPERFORMANCE IN EDUCATIONPOLICY RESEARCHPOLITICAL SCIENTISTSPOWER PARITYPRIVATE SECTORPRODUCTION FUNCTIONPRODUCTIVE SECTORPROGRAMSPUBLIC ENTERPRISESPUBLIC EXPENDITUREPUBLIC EXPENDITURE IN TRANSPORTPUBLIC EXPENDITURESPUBLIC SECTORPURCHASING POWERQUANTITATIVE ASSESSMENTSRAILRECURRENT EXPENDITURESRELATIVE IMPORTANCERELATIVE POSITIONRESOURCE ALLOCATIONROAD NETWORKROAD SECTORROADSSAMPLE SIZESANITATIONSECTOR EXPENDITURESECTORAL ALLOCATIONSECTORAL BUDGETSECTORAL COMPOSITIONSECTORAL EXPENDITURESECTORAL POLICIESSIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCESTAXPAYERSTOLLTOTAL EXPENDITURETRANSPORTTRANSPORT = INFRASTRUCTURETRANSPORT SECTORWorld Bank10.1596/1813-9450-4219