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This book shows how mathematics is used in developing economic theory and in applied economic analysis. The text gradually develops the mathematical skills needed by students and allows them to progress at their own pace. A wide variety of examples shows how, and why, the application of mathematics has become essential to economists.

With continuing pressures for transparency, accountability and value for money, measuring the performance of public sector organisations is attracting increasing academic and management attention. However, little attention appears to have been paid to the performance information needs of stakeholders. This paper describes work with a number of Scottish local authority services to develop an information portfolio that would meet the performance measurement needs of diverse stakeholders. Overall, the approach was found to be useful, allowing services to identify the key stakeholders with an interest in their service's performance, the judgements about performance that each group wanted to make and the key information that stakeholders would need.

The new Labour Government elected in the UK in 1997 has a declared commitment to the modernisation of local government and has proposed radical change to the way councils plan and deliver local services through best value in service delivery. Best value emphasises the role of sound management as a means of delivering service improvements. Best value in Scotland has a core requirement for every council to develop an effective performance management and planning (PMP) framework. The Accounts Commission and Audit Scotland have developed a detailed audit approach to assess and support each council's progress in developing and improving its PMP framework. The audit specified sets out the key features of a best value service grouped under ten criteria, requires each council service being audited to critically assess their current performance, and requires each service to implement performance improvements that are necessary to deliver best value services. The key findings from the first audit are presented together with an evaluation of councils' reactions to the audit and an assessment of the contribution of the audit to continuous improvement in Scottish local government.

Aimed at final year undergraduate students, this is the first volume to publish in a new series of text covering core subjects in operational research in an accessible student-friendly format. This volume presents simulation paired with inventory control. The Operational Research Series aims to provide a new generation of European-originated texts of practical relevance to todays student. To guarantee accessibility, the texts are concise and have a non-mathematical orientation. These texts will provide students with the grounding in operational research theory they need to become the innovators of tomorrow

Local government in the UK is not immune from the pressures driving
successful organizations towards top quality services that delight their
customers. Outlines some of the special features of local government
service provision and the way in which these might affect the assessment
of service quality. Highlights some of the limitations of conventional
customer satisfaction surveys which lead the authors to consider the
SERVQUAL approach. This method, which has been the subject of
considerable academic scrutiny and extensive private sector service
application, merits serious consideration by local government managers
as a robust, adaptable, diagnostic instrument to measure service
quality.