1.2: Benchmarking
Benchmark against peers Other Information:
Benchmarking consistently against peers -- National and international benchmarks are powerful but underutilized as inputs
into decision making, particularly in a world where governments everywhere face similar issues and no single government excels
across the board. On almost any metric—from high-school graduation rates to unemployment to per capita health-care costs—there
are wide variations in government performance across the OECD and even within large federal countries. An economist would
say this inconsistency is to be expected since monopolies, absent any competitive pressure, tend to deliver suboptimal performance.
But every government's best practices can be useful to other governments and can motivate change. The introduction of the
OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) study, for instance, caused a "PISA shock" that spurred reform
in countries including Germany and the United States and subsequently highlighted a range of best practices in education (such
as the building and nurturing of a high-quality teacher pipeline)
Indicator(s):
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