This paper considers methods to measure output and productivity in the delivery of health services, with an application to the NHS hospital sector. It first develops a theoretical framework for measuring quality adjusted outputs and then considers how this might be implemented given available...

This paper considers methods to measure output and productivity in the delivery of health services, with an application to NHS hospital sector. It first develops a theoretical framework for measuring quality adjusted outputs and then considers how this might be implemented given available data....

The setting and use of targets in the public sector has generated a growing amount of interest in the UK. This has occurred at a time when more analysts and policymakers are grasping the nettle of measuring performance in and of the public sector. We outline a typology of performance indicators...

In the past decade early years education has expanded throughout England with progressive extensions in entitlement to some hours of free provision. Furthermore, there is consistent evidence that shows that early years education leads to improvement in cognitive and social development for...

There is a body of evidence that shows that early education improves cognitive and social development for children while they are still attending, but the longer-term impacts depend on the quality of early education. Much of this evidence in England relates to a period when attendance rates at...

UK manufacturing productivity has for a long time lagged behind the US. Explanations put forward for the `productivity gap' include disparities in capital stock levels, the quality of the labour force and different rates of technology adoption. The questions addressed in this paper are, `has...

This article presents measures o f competitiveness in manufacturing comparing Britain to Germany, France and the United States. Data from the National Accounts and the Census of Production are combined to derive new estimates of relative unit labour costs for a number of manufacturing...

This article presents estimates of the contribution of physical capital to explaining labour productivity differences between Britain and four of her major competitors, the United States, Germany, France and Japan. The paper uses a standardised method to estimate capital stocks in the five...

Relative levels of labour productivity are estimated to have been about 22 per cent higher in German than in British manufacturing in 1987. The German productivity advantage was most pronounced in non-electrical engineering, vehicles and metals. The British performance was relatively better in...