In 2010, Ian Clark and Ben Eisen published a paper entitled “Frugal Public Management Principles for an Era of Austerity” on the October issue of the Canadian journal of economic studies named Policy Options / Options Politiques. Ian Clark is a former secretary of the Treasury Board and executive director fo Canada at the International Monetary Fund. He is also a professor in the School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Toronto. Ben Eisen was in the first graduating class of the school’s Master of Public Policy program and is a policy analyst at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.

The authors suggest that all public sector activities should be reexamined through the lens of “Frugal Public Management”. They offer seven principles of program design that enable policy objectives to be achieved more efficiently and equitably in response to the specific needs, preferences and capacities of institutions and individuals. The efficiency proposition is that “you generally get more for your money if you describe clearly what you want, get the incentives right, take advantage of economies of scale and pay only what is needed to get the job done”. The equity proposition, supported by
research done at IMF, is that “you generally get more equitable results from social expenditures if benefits are targeted to the individuals in greatest need”. Therefore, efficiency and equity go hand in hand within this definition of frugality in government. Suggestions on how to translate these principles into practice include:

• Establish results-oriented measures and objectives for service design and delivery
• Introduce performance-related incentives for individuals and institutions
• Centralize service delivery only if/when economies of scale are reached – decentralize otherwise
• Concentrate and specialize only if/when efficiencies are gained
• Collocate/commission where benefits from proximity can be obtained
• Pay what is required, but no more, to secure the proper start-up and running of services

The above should ultimately lead to the implementation of less uniform, more differentiated policy and service programs than those that are currently designed and carried out by governments.

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