Exploring the Shift from Output Measures to Outcome Measures of Service Delivery: Insights from Municipal Research

Prior research shows that reporting on outcome measures increases the probability that local officials will use perform- ance data to inform their decisions. What has been over- looked in the literature is the question of why some local governments continue to focus more on outputs than on out- comes of service delivery, thereby limiting their ability to use performance data for decision-making. The purpose of this art- icle is to identify organizational, individual, and support factors that could increase the probability that local officials in the Apulia Region of Italy when measuring performance, will move beyond the basic measures of output to the more advanced measures of outcome. Base…