Measuring performance with global indicators: The case of public residential housing

Many public administrations produce and distribute public services in a given territory through a number of similar local autonomous organizations, or institutions, operating in different parts of the territory assigned to them under a centralized authority. Examples of this are the public residential housing institutions, the institutions for waste disposal, health care institutions, and education institutions. The problem arises regarding the evaluation of the performance of these local organizations and institutions, not in absolute but in relative terms, in order to determine what incentives or sanctions should be meted out to them. After clarifying the formal theoretical aspects for constructing the various synthetic performance indicators, this paper applies the procedure to a comparative evaluation of the Lombardy public residential housing institutions (A.L.E.R., that is “Aziende Lombarde di Edilizia Residenziale”), through which the regional administration provides public residential services in the various provinces.