Dr. Arwi Srithongrung Kriz Publishes Working Paper and White Paper on State Government Efficiency
A study released today by the Institute for Illinois Public Finance at the University of Illinois at Springfield reports mixed results with respect to the efficiency of Illinois state government. Dr. Arwi Srithongrung Kriz, IIPF Research Fellow and an internationally recognized expert on efficiency measurement, develops measures of efficiency for eight functions of state government: Higher Education, Elementary and Secondary Education, Public Welfare, Health and Hospitals, Transportation, Public Safety, Environment and Housing, and Infrastructure. She compares numerous measures of the things that government produces such as the number of degrees awarded at public universities and the number of prisoners in correctional facilities with the costs of those services and the number of state employees in each function. Dr. Srithongrung Kriz employs a methodology which has been scientifically tested in many settings and is superior to measures used in previous analyses of state government efficiency.
The study finds that Illinois state government is in a group of the most efficient states in three functions: Higher Education, Environment and Housing, and Infrastructure. It is in the top 20 states for efficiency in Welfare, and in the top half of states for Public Safety and Health and Hospitals efficiency. However, the state ranks below average in efficiency in the Elementary and Secondary Education function and near the bottom in Transportation. The study is unique in that the measures of efficiency that are produced lead directly to recommendations for improving the efficiency of state government operations. Recommendations in the study include increasing regional or centralized services shared by local school districts for the Elementary and Secondary Education function and reducing capital project acquisition costs in the Transportation area.
The study is available in a longer Working Paper format that compares efficiency across all states, available here, and a shorter White Paper version that focuses on Illinois state government, available here. Media coverage of Dr. Srithongrung Kriz’ report can be found at:
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U of I Springfield's study shows mixed results for efficiency of Illinois state government