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Government at a Glance provides readers with a dashboard of key indicators assembled with the goal of contributing to the analysis and international comparison of public sector performance. Indicators on government revenues, expenditures, and employment are provided alongside key output and outcome data in the sectors of education, health and justice. Government at a Glance also includes indicators on key governance and public management issues, such as transparency in governance, regulatory governance, public procurement and the implementation of employment and remuneration reforms since 2009. While measuring government performance has long been recognized as playing an important role in increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of the public administration, following the economic crisis and fiscal tightening in many member countries, good indicators are needed more than ever to help governments make informed decisions regarding tough choices and help restore confidence in government institutions.

Governments spend money in order perform their activities, and the required financial resources to cover government expenditures are obtained through the collection of taxes or by contracting debt. The fiscal balance is the difference between government revenues and spending. If in a given year, a government receives more than it spends, a surplus occurs. Conversely, when the government spends more than it receives in revenues, there is a deficit. Consecutive deficits will lead to mounting debt levels and consequently higher payments of interest. The primary balance that is the balance before interest payments signals the capacity of governments to honour debt without the need for further indebtedness.

Responsiveness in education involves adapting teaching methods to the needs of different students, but also maintaining good communication with parents (or guardians of children) and interactions with community groups that might also provide support to the successful completion of basic education for all children.

While efficiency and cost effectiveness are among the primary objectives of public procurement, governments are also increasingly using it to pursue additional secondary policy objectives. Secondary policy objectives could include promoting sustainable green growth, the development of small and medium-sized enterprises, innovation, standards for responsible business conduct or broader industrial policy objectives, through their procurement policies.

Fiscal balance for a given level of government (from national to local) is achieved when expenditures and revenues are balanced. The situation where revenues exceed expenses (positive balance) is called a surplus. On the contrary, a negative balance is called a deficit. While balances are consolidated across all levels of government, depending on the political and administrative structure, central and sub-central governments share different degrees of fiscal sovereignty. For example in federal countries, states have higher autonomy to contract debt and levy taxes. The general government debt (across all levels of government) might be affected by modest changes in debt by a large number of sub-central governments. Liabilities from sub-central governments resulting from the need to finance deficits through borrowing are considered as debt of the sub-central governments. However, the capacity of sub-central governments to incur debt is often limited since they are usually subject to tight fiscal rules.

Governments are faced with budget constraints and therefore should invest in those projects that represent the greatest benefits compared to costs. In addition, the presence of market failures, which are situations in which markets left on their own would produce inefficient results (e.g. monopolies), are commonly addressed by government intervention. Regardless of whether a project is carried out by traditional public provision, public-private partnerships, or others, its economic appraisal remains the responsibility of government. Cost benefit analysis (CBA) is a methodology with a long intellectual and practical history for estimating the ex ante desirability of a project. It is designed to demonstrate whether or not the long-term social benefits of a project are greater than its costs. In practice, it estimates the opportunity cost or benefit of goods and services and uses these accounting prices (or shadow prices) as a more appropriate signal than observed market prices, which may be distorted by a variety of reasons. Performance indicators are then computed; typically, a positive net present value of benefits over costs is required in order to conclude that ex ante a project is socially desirable.

The recovery is under way and economic growth is slowly starting to pick up in the OECD area. Fiscal consolidation is proceeding, although unemployment remains high, while productivity growth has been low. Inequalities, in the distribution of income and other outcomes that matter for people’s well-being, are also widening. Governments must address these challenges to deliver stronger, more inclusive growth in the years to come; a multidimensional approach to public policy making is needed.

Governments use a mix of their own employees, capital and outside contractors to produce goods and services. Production costs are computed as the share of government expenditures dedicated to the production of goods and services. While some governments choose to outsource the production of most goods and services, others produce the goods and services themselves. Outsourcing can take place in two ways. Governments can either purchase goods and services to be used as inputs, or they can pay a non-profit or private entity to provide the goods and services directly to the end user.

Data regularly collected through the Gallup World Poll allows some comparative analysis of the satisfaction level of citizens with a range of public services, notably in the areas of health, education and justice, across OECD and partner countries.

This annex provides data for each responding country on the types of private interests that they require central government decision makers to disclose as well as the level of transparency of these disclosures. The data underlie the summary of data presented in .

Public expenditures have two main objectives: produce and/or pay for the goods and services delivered to citizens and businesses, and redistribute income. In addition, the amount of financial resources spent by governments provides an indication on the size of the public sector. Although government expenditures are usually less flexible than government revenues they are also sensitive to economic developments associated with the business cycle and reflect historical and current political decisions. For example, governments could choose to transfer resources via subsidies and grants or provide support by lowering tax rates to a given economic sector or a group within the society.

The principle of the rule of law refers to the authority and influence of law within a society. According to this principle, the law should govern and no one, including the government is above it. The rule of law is implemented through the existence of codified or standardised procedures and a series of mechanisms guaranteeing access, equality, predictability, reliability and accountability. It constitutes a key measure of good governance and it is crucial for maintaining peace and order, as well as fostering investment and development.

Fairness and impartiality are expected of public servants in fulfilling their fundamental mission to serve the public interest. Public officials’ conflicts of interest pose a threat to public trust. In this context, assuring transparency and accountability of public officials in their decision-making process is key to restoring trust in the government.

This annex provides data for each responding country on the efforts made by government to proactively disclose and support re-use of Open Government Data. The data underlie the summary of data presented in .

The centre of government (CoG), also known as Chancellery, Cabinet Office, Office of the President, Presidencia, White House Executive Office, Privy Council, Casa Civil, among others, is a support structure of a government. Its main objective is to ensure evidence-based, strategic and consistent policy implementation by a government. The structure of the CoG reflects, on the one hand, constitutional and legal requirements, which provide some architectural anchoring, and, on the other, an ability to be highly adaptable to the needs, preferences and personality of the head of government of the moment. To be effective, the CoG needs to be small enough to react rapidly to changing events; as it grows, it risks losing flexibility and becoming unwieldy. At the same time, recent experience suggests that too small could mean too little capacity, which, in turn, endangers the ability to the CoG to provide impartial, authoritative advice and support.

The central objective of regulatory policy is to ensure that regulations are designed and implemented in the public interest. It can only be achieved with help from those concerned: citizens, businesses, civil society, public sector organisations, etc. The 2012 OECD Recommendation on Regulatory Policy and Governance recommends that governments actively engage … all relevant stakeholders during the regulation-making process and design … consultation processes to maximise the quality of the information received and its effectiveness (OECD, forthcoming). OECD member countries acknowledge the importance of listening to the voice of users, who need to be part of the regulatory development process. Moreover, stakeholder engagement is commonly considered as a key element of an open government policy.

Citizens expect court decisions to be implemented in an effective and fair manner. Well-functioning civil justice systems protect the rights of all citizens against infringement of the law by others, including by powerful parties and governments. An essential component of the rule of law is indeed based on effective and fair judicial systems to ensure that the laws are respected and appropriate sanctions are taken when they are violated. It is, however, very difficult to isolate the impact of well-functioning judicial systems on security outcomes and crime control from the involvement of other stakeholders such as the police and the correctional systems. Therefore this constitutes a major limitation in making causality links between those two.

Against the background of an increasingly complex governance environment, limited fiscal space, and growing demands for transparency and accountability, governments are continually challenged to demonstrate better performance and management of available resources. Supreme audit institutions (SAIs) have also moved from a more traditional focus on financial audits to looking at aspects of performance or value for money. Indeed the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) posits that performance auditing greatly enriches public accountability and enables the SAI to make practical contributions to improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the public administration (INTOSAI, 2010). As such, SAIs have the potential to contribute to better design and use of performance-related budgeting and management systems and to enhance public accountability in OECD countries.

Information and communication technologies (ICT) increasingly underlie all government activities. Governments in OECD countries spend up to 2% of their budgets on IT (OECD, 2013). Although the share might appear small, it includes many large and therefore risky projects.

Governments accumulate debt to finance expenditures above their revenues. As a result of the crisis, many OECD countries raised spending via stimulus packages and interventions to support financial institutions, therefore incurring public debt. In many OECD countries revenue collections also decreased, adding pressure to public finances.