National Statistics Online - Articles - Understanding Government Output and Productivity
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Understanding Government Output and Productivity
Illustrates how productivity is measured in different areas of government and presents an aggregated series showing productivity change from 1995 to 2001.
Government output is the volume of goods and services provided by government to individuals or the population at large, either free of charge or at a nominal cost.
It is an important component of the gross domestic product. This article presents some figures and commentary showing how government activities are portrayed in the national accounts, both in aggregate and for a number of different government functions. It also contains the first published estimate of overall government productivity performance. Efficient use of resources is central to good economic management: comparing the outputs with the inputs which produced them yields a productivity measure. But government aims also go wider than improving productivity performance: they also strive to achieve stated outcomes, eg a crime-free society, a healthy population.
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