Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics, Business and Management Sciences, University of Bejaia, Bejaia, Algeria
10.22111/ijbds.2026.56059.2350
Abstract
Objective: This article evaluates the efficiency of public expenditure allocation to optimize the overall performance of the public sector. Conducted on a panel of forty countries stratified by income level, this study highlights the crucial dimension of expenditure quality. This issue, which remains marginally explored in recent empirical literature, takes on a particular urgency in a context of structural and perpetual growth of global public budgets.
Methods: Methodological rigor rests on Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), a non-parametric approach highly suitable for estimating relative technical efficiency scores from annual data covering the 2015-2025 period. Furthermore, the integration of the Malmquist productivity index captures the dynamic trajectory of public sector performance and disentangles efficiency variations from technological shifts.
Results: Empirical estimations reveal substantial technical inefficiency over the entire period, characterized by a disconnect between the hierarchy of scores and countries' income levels. Counterintuitively, middle-income economies, particularly those in the lower-middle bracket, display a better average optimization of their budgetary resources compared to high-income countries. The latter suffer from diminishing marginal returns, attributable to the relative hypertrophy of their public sector.
Conclusions: The study advocates for a strategic realignment and a structural reconfiguration of budgetary allocation rather than quantitative expansion for high and middle-income countries. For low-income economies, strengthening institutional quality proves imperative to guarantee increased resilience against exogenous macroeconomic shocks.
FASSA, B. , ZIDAT, R. and NAIT-CHABANE, A. (2026). Public sector performance and public spending efficiency: An international comparative analysis using the DEA approach on a panel of 40 countries. International Journal of Business and Development Studies, 18(1), -. doi: 10.22111/ijbds.2026.56059.2350
MLA
FASSA, B. , , ZIDAT, R. , and NAIT-CHABANE, A. . "Public sector performance and public spending efficiency: An international comparative analysis using the DEA approach on a panel of 40 countries", International Journal of Business and Development Studies, 18, 1, 2026, -. doi: 10.22111/ijbds.2026.56059.2350
HARVARD
FASSA, B., ZIDAT, R., NAIT-CHABANE, A. (2026). 'Public sector performance and public spending efficiency: An international comparative analysis using the DEA approach on a panel of 40 countries', International Journal of Business and Development Studies, 18(1), pp. -. doi: 10.22111/ijbds.2026.56059.2350
CHICAGO
B. FASSA , R. ZIDAT and A. NAIT-CHABANE, "Public sector performance and public spending efficiency: An international comparative analysis using the DEA approach on a panel of 40 countries," International Journal of Business and Development Studies, 18 1 (2026): -, doi: 10.22111/ijbds.2026.56059.2350
VANCOUVER
FASSA, B., ZIDAT, R., NAIT-CHABANE, A. Public sector performance and public spending efficiency: An international comparative analysis using the DEA approach on a panel of 40 countries. International Journal of Business and Development Studies, 2026; 18(1): -. doi: 10.22111/ijbds.2026.56059.2350
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