Four Faces of Public Service Efficiency

<title>Abstract</title> We argue that there are four main dimensions, or faces, of public service efficiency, which should matter to theorists and practitioners of public management. The first, <italic>productive efficiency</italic>, relates to the maximization of outputs over inputs; the second, <italic>allocative efficiency</italic>, refers to the match between the demand for services and their supply; the third, <italic>distributive efficiency</italic>, relates to the pattern of service delivery amongst different groups of citizens; while the fourth, <italic>dynamic efficiency</italic>, refers to the balance between current and future consumption. We examine each of these faces of efficiency in turn and reflect upon the potential trade-offs between them.