The authors of the feasibility study expect there to be different audiences reading the report. This section provides guidance for those different audiences in how to read the material.
This main report from the feasibility study has been organised in a way that should allow readers with different levels of interest to pick and choose what is read. A guiding principle in organising the material has been to focus on the needs of the main target audience for this feasibility study. This main target audience is expected to be future compilers of estimates of government output and productivity. As such, several sections provide a formidable amount of information, all of which are necessary for future compilers, but may be of lesser importance to a less involved reader, who may wish to skip these sections. The main examples of this are section 5 on concepts and sections 9 and 10 on data availability.
This main report is in three parts: the first part, covering sections 1 – 4 sets the scene for measuring government productivity, and introduces the main concepts and issues. The middle part, covering sections 5 – 8, provides detailed concepts, discusses application of the concepts for health care and education, and draws together the recommendations from throughout this main report. The last part, covering sections 9 –11, presents the data sources that have been identified during the feasibility study, and sets out the current international practices for compiling health care and education output and productivity estimates.
Table 1 sets out guidance for the three main types of reader, with a cross indicating items of interest and a double cross indicating that reading is essential for that audience.
Table 1 Guidance for different audiences reading this feasibility study
In parts of this report, some of the text is contained within boxes. This signifies that the text forms either a recommendation, a hint or a cautionary note. Recommendations have been identified with a letter (G for general, H for health care, or E for education, respectively).