Scientific Research on the Efficiency of Public Expenditures: How and Where is it Going?

• Published in: International journal of public administration Vol. 43; no. 11; pp. 926 - 936
• Main Authors: Sant´Ana, Tomás Dias, Lopes, André Vaz, Miranda, Rodrigo Fontenelle De Araujo, Bermejo, Paulo Henrique De Souza, Demo, Gisela
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Routledge 17-08-2020; Marcel Dekker, Inc
• Subjects: Bibliometrics; Efficiency; Expenditures; Government spending; Health care expenditures; Health education; Mapping; public spending; Quantitative analysis; research agenda; systematic bibliometric review
• ISSN: 0190-0692; 1532-4265
• DOI: 10.1080/01900692.2019.1660995

Recent scientific research has advanced the measurement of the relative performance of organizations and the efficiency of public spending, based on analyzes of the services offered and results achieved. However, from the methodological point of view, there are several methods to analyze the performance and efficiency of spending in the private and public sectors. In this sense, the present study performs a systematic bibliometric review to analyze all scientific publications on the efficiency of public spending published in the last 20 years. The results show that most cost-efficiency analyzes have been limited to education and health expenditures and have used quantitative analysis, mainly through the application of data-involution analysis. The present review is a first step in mapping scientific publications on efficiency in public spending, which will support researchers and managers to make public spending more efficient.