Local governments' efficiency: A systematic literature review—part I

Abstract

The efficient management of the available resources in local governments has been a topic of high interest in the field of public sector. We provide an extensive and comprehensive review of the existing literature on local governments’ efficiency from a global point of view, covering all articles from 1990 to August 2016. This paper is the first of two. It covers the basic aspects related to local governments’ efficiency measurement not taking into account the effect of environmental conditions. First, we show a detailed overview of the studies investigating public sector efficiency across various countries, comparing the data and samples employed, and the main results obtained. Second, we describe which techniques have been used for measuring efficiency in the context of local governments. Third, we summarize the inputs and outputs used. Finally, we discuss some operative directions and considerations for further research in the field.