Public security in Brazil: Efficiency and technological gaps

This article analyzes the technical efficiency, the Total Factor Productivity (TFP) and the technological gap in public security services in Brazilian States. The order—m frontier is used for results estimation. The TFP variation is built by decomposing the Malmquist productivity index into technical efficiency, scale efficiency and technological variation. More than 50% of the federative units were considered technically inefficient. Out of the 27 federative units, 12 presented a positive total productivity while all others suffered total productivity losses. Productivity gains in public security are more related to scale aspects than to efficiency improvements and technological progress.