Why does government productivity fail to grow? New public management and UK social security

Productivity is a key performance measure, consisting of the ratio of outputs produced to the inputs used in producing them. Since at least the 1980s, public management scholars have analysed the determinants of productivity among public sector organisations, mirroring the approach undertaken by economists in the private sector since at least the 1950s (Solow 1957). However, most of the public management empirical works have focused on specific decentralised areas such as police departments, post offices, etc., where the records of multiple local producers can be compared (See Garricano and Heaton 2007; Lehr and Lichtenberg 1998; Mukhopadhyay et al., 1997). Few empirical analyses focus on central government public bodies, which are unique and cannot be compared with any equivalent bodies. Over-time comparisons of performance are possible here; however, historically there has been a lack of reliable yearly data to construct consistent productivity ratios over time.