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Journal of Applied Economics, Vol. VIII, No. 1 (May 2005), 171-190 EVALUATING TARGET ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR 171 EVALUATING TARGET ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR: AN APPLICATION OF A RARE NON-PARAMETRIC DEA AND MALMQUIST INDICES JAMES ODECK* The Norwegian University of Science and Technology and The Norwegian Public Roads Administration Submitted June 2003; accepted February 2004 This paper provides an assessment of the extent to which targets set by a public authority are achieved by its operational units. A rare DEA framework and its subsequent Malmquist indices are applied on data comprising 19 units over a four year period of 1996 to 1999. The mean efficiency scores by which targets are achieved across the sample years are moderate, in the range 0.81 to 0.93. Average productivity progress across the sample years has been 26 percent. The results illustrate the usefulness of DEA even when there are no inputs and the decomposable Malmquist index for productivity is an asset in exploring causes of productivity growth. JEL classification codes: L92, C61 Key words: target achievement, traffic safety, data envelopment analysis, Malmquist indices I. Introduction Traffic safety has been a long time policy objective in most modern countries and it is generally believed that compulsory vehicle inspections are * Thanks are due to Harald Minken and Rune Elvik both at the Norwegian Institute of Transport Economics for useful comments on an earlier version of this paper. I would also like to thank the Norwegian Public Roads Administration for funding this study. I am also indebted to two anonymous referees. Errors in this paper are of course mine and none should be attributed to the above named persons. Correspondence should be addressed to