Achieving value for money in public expenditure is a key issue, whatever the state of the economic cycle. Its importance is even more marked in the present situation. In order to attain this, we must have a clear idea of the objectives of particular expenditure programmes, and of the extent to...

The unique characteristics of Brian O?Driscoll?s international rugby career provide a rare opportunity to obtain a measure of the impact of an individual player on the outcome of a team game. Generally, small samples and selection bias make such estimates unreliable. O?Driscoll, however, was an...

Achieving value for money in public expenditure is a key issue, whatever the state of the economic cycle. Its importance is even more marked in the present situation. In order to attain this, we must have a clear idea of the objectives of particular expenditure programmes, and of the extent to...