Dirk Haubrich and colleagues from Nuffield College, Oxford explore the extent to which deprivation constrains the performance of local government in England, as measured by the centrally-administered Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA). It sheds light on the extent to which managers can be held to account for performance that is a function of factors beyond their control.

Download a copy of the PowerPoint presentation delivered to the January symposium on institutions, incentives and public sector performance here.

This is one of a group of studies commissioned for OPI's 2008 conference on `Institutions, Incentives and Public Sector Performance'. As a group they raise efficiency and equity issues about fiscal and managerial decentralisation which are of increasing importance as cities become larger and the challenges facing the delivery of municipal public services greater. See also Peter John, Clive Grace, Barry Quirk and Fiona Murray.