Journal Articles

International Comparison of Public Sector Performance: The Use of Anchoring Vignettes to adjust Self-Reported Data

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International comparison of performance has become an influential lever for change in the provision of public services. For health care, patients’ views and opinions are increasingly being recognized as legitimate means for assessing the provision of services, to stimulate quality improvements, and more recently, in evaluating system performance. This has shifted the focus of analyses towards the use of individual-level surveys of performance from the perspective of the user and raises the issue of how to compare appropriately self-reported data across institutional settings and population groups. Using data on health systems responsiveness across 17 EU countries contained within the World Health Survey, this paper outlines the issues that arise in comparative inference that relies on respondent self-reports. The problem of systematic reporting behaviour is described and illustrated together with potential solutions brought about through the use of anchoring vignettes. Our results show large differences in the rankings of country performance once adjustment for systematic country-level reporting behaviour has been undertaken compared to the ranking observed in the raw unadjusted data. The use of anchoring vignettes as a means to obtain comparability in self-reported survey instruments of performance promises to be a fundamental tool for international comparative research.

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Detail Information

Series Title

Evaluation

Call Number

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Publisher

Thousand Oaks, CA : sage., 2010

Collation

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Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

13563890

Classification

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Content Type

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Media Type

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Carrier Type

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Edition

Vol. 16, No. 1, January 2010. pp. 81-101

Subject(s)

responsiveness
Cross-country comparison
Health system performance
Vignettes
International Comparison of Public Sector

Specific Detail Info

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Statement of Responsibility

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