To Capture Production or Wellbeing? A Review Article on Towards Measuring the Volume Output of Education and Health Services: A Handbook

This review article evaluates the report Towards Measuring the Volume Output of Education and Health Services: A Handbook produced by the OECD. Traditionally, input costs have been used to estimate the value of education and health services. The Handbook provides detailed analysis and recommendations regarding appropriate methodologies and data to improve volume output measures for these services. The author welcomes the efforts of the OECD in this area. However, it is argued that output measures should focus on the estimates of the volume of production of these services rather than their social valuation. As such, unit costs should be used as weights when aggregating outputs rather than marginal social valuations, which introduce a degree of subjectivity.