Abstract
Over the recent past there has been a fundamental reassessment of the role of the public sector and the level of public expenditure in all the industrialised countries. To some extent this reassessment has been associated with — indeed has been a result of — the continued growth of public expenditure during the post-war period. Policy concerns are increasingly directed at the evaluation of the costs and benefits associated with the Welfare State. As importantly, however, this reassessment has occurred because the growth has been accompanied by a significant change in composition, largely away from expenditure on goods and services towards transfer payments. This change in composition has also reflected a move away from the provision of traditional public goods (e.g. defence) towards those associated with the growth of the Welfare State, which has provided benefits on an individualistic basis and where redistributive concerns are dominant.
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McGuire, A. (1990). Measuring Performance in the Health Care Sector: the Whys and the Hows. In: Andersen, T.F., Mooney, G. (eds) The Challenges of Medical Practice Variations. Economic Issues in Health Care. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-20781-7_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-20781-7_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave, London
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