This book is both a strong reference manual for practitioners in public finance and operations fields and a good textbook for the training of future public financial and operations managers. The material will stand the test of time as an essential resource for practitioners while remaining accessible for students. The extended examples and figures demonstrate thoroughly the principles and techniques explained in the text.
Kenneth A. Kriz , Wichita State University, Kansas, USA
Cost and Optimization in Government
The careful management of costs and operations are two of the most essential elements of operating any successful organization, public or private. While the private sector is driven by profit-maximizing incentives to keep costs to a minimum, the public sectors mission and goals are guided by a different set of objectives: to provide a wide range of essential goods and services to maintain social order, improve public health, revitalize the economy, and, most importantly, to improve the quality of life for its citizens. Although the objectives are different, it is just as important for public decision makers to make the best use of available resources by keeping the cost of operation to a minimum. This book demonstrates that with a careful emphasis on cost accounting, operations management, and quality control, all organizations and governments can increase efficiency, improve performance, and prepare to weather hard times.
This book is divided into three parts: Part I offers thorough coverage of cost fundamentals, with an emphasis on basic cost concepts, cost behavior, cost analysis, cost accounting, and cost control. Part II examines optimization in costs and operations in government including traditional or classical optimization with applications in inventory management and queuing, followed by mathematical programming and network analysis. Finally, Part III explores special topics in cost and optimization, in particular those related to games and decisions, productivity measurement, and quality control. Simple, accessible language and explanations are integrated throughout, and examples have been drawn from government so that readers can easily relate to them. Cost and Optimization in Government is required reading for practicing public managers and students of public administration in need of a clear, concise guide to maximizing public resource efficiency.
Aman Khan is Professor of Political Science and Public Administration at Texas Tech University, USA.
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND PUBLIC POLICY
A Comprehensive Publication Program
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
DAVID H. ROSENBLOOM
Distinguished Professor of Public Administration
American University, Washington, DC
Founding Editor
JACK RABIN
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Second edition published 2017
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First edition published by Quorum Books (imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.) 2000
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Names: Khan, Aman, author.
Title: Cost and optimization in government : an introduction to cost
accounting, operations management and quality control / by Aman Khan.
Description: Second Edition. | New York : Routledge, 2017. | Series:
Public Administration and Public Policy | Previous edition: 2000. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 201605| ISBN 9781420067217 (hardback :
alk. paper) | ISBN 9781315207674 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Government productivity. | Public administrationCost
control. | Public administrationCost effectiveness. | Mathematical
optimization.
Classification: LCC JF1525.P67 K48 2017 | DDC 352.4/3dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/201605
ISBN: 978-1-4200-6721-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-20767-4 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
Aman Khan is Professor of Political Science and Public Administration at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, where he teaches public budgeting, financial management, and quantitative methods in public administration. He is the author, coauthor, editor, and coeditor of numerous professional publications, including Cost and Optimization in Government (first edition), Case Studies in Public Budgeting and Financial Management (with W. Bartley Hildreth), Budget Theory in the Public Sector (with W. Bartley Hildreth), and Financial Management Theory in the Public Sector (with W. Bartley Hildreth). He previously served as the Director of the Graduate Program in Public Administration. Trained as an economist and planner, he has an MS in Urban & Regional Planning, an MA in Economics, and a PhD in Public Administration, with specialization in public budgeting and finance from the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania.
