State and Local Government Productivity Improvement: What Is the Federal Role?
Highlights
Productivity is defined as the relationship between resources used and results achieved. Improvement in productivity means either obtaining more and better program output from a given level of resources or using fewer resources to maintain or improve a certain quality level of output. The federal government has a vital stake in improving the productivity of state and local governments for two primary reasons: (1) the national economy is strengthened as a result of improvements in the productivity and fiscal prospects of this key sector; and (2) the effectiveness and efficiency of the multitude of federal grant and regulatory programs using state and local governments to implement federal policies are directly related to the management capacity of those governments.