The analysis of government sector productivity is still in an early stage of development. We look in detail at productivity trends in the UK social security system, which accounts for almost a quarter of total state spending. We look across twenty years, 1998-2008, and in detail at a period of...

Some of the most difficult issues in public management revolve around making strategic choices for the future in an era of rapid social, cultural and technological change. In previous work we drew a contrast between new public management (NPM) approaches, which predominated in the period...