Public administration has entered a new age. In the 1980s, “less” government was the prevailing idea; in the 1990s and early 21^st century, “New Public Management” was the dominant theme. Today, public administration is moving in new directions. Reforms are focusing on the quality of services for citizens and businesses and on the efficiency of administration (the “back office” of government). The OECD is studying these new trends in a multi-annual, cross-country project called “Value for Money in Government”.

This is the first report in a new OECD series on the topic. The book examines four themes in nine OECD countries: the development of shared service centres, the steering and control of agencies, automatic productivity cuts, and spending review procedures. In addition, it contains a quantitative analysis of the size of employment in central government. The countries studied are Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The book pays particular attention to the case of the Netherlands, the country that first proposed an OECD study on value for money in government.

Executive Summary
Introduction
Chapter 1. Quantitative Comparison of Public Service Employment
-Employment in central government
-Administrative employment
-Data sources
-The size of central and general government
-Size of administrative employment
-Organisation of central government
Chapter 2. Qualitative Assessments of Recent Reforms
-Focus of the qualitative assessments
-Shared service centres
-Financial management
-Questions emerging from the qualitative assessments
Annex A. COFOG-Special Classification
Annex B. Snapshots of the Public Administration
Annex C. Corrected Central Government Employment
Annex D. Standard-setting Units and Support Services Delivery Units