地方競爭力評比或是績效指標建構之研究文獻，迄今仍無法處理既存指標之缺乏公共支出與地方服務的投入產出關係等問題，本研究乃嘗試建立地方公共支出之投入與公共服務的產出關係，改變過去「重產出、輕投入」為「投入產出並重」的效率衡量方式。並以台灣的 23個地方政府（2個直轄市與 21個縣市）為研究對象，進行兩階段之公共支出效率探討。第一階段運用非參數法 — DEA與 FDH兩種不同模式，分析各地方政府之相對效率表現，研究結果顯示：有「高投入、高產出」與「低投入、中產出」縣市，同列於理論效率前緣邊界，同為最具效率的單位；其中效率值相對偏低的縣市，明顯存在平均每人歲出金額過高、產出服務表現偏低的現象；有趣的發現是，地方轄區人口數在 80萬以上的縣市政府其平均效率值，明顯高於人口數在 80萬以下的縣市政府，顯示縣市規模似存在效率的差異，此也隱示從效率觀點可能存在規模經濟或都市最適規模之現象。本研究第二階段另以參數法進行迴歸分析，找出影響地方公共支出效率的重要因素，期藉以瞭解提升地方政府資源運用效率之環境因素，研究結果顯示：人口密度具正向影響，家庭可支用所得、補助款依存度、融資性收入依存度等項變數具負向影響，均具統計顯著性，實證與理論預期相符，惟產業發展變數具負向影響，表示服務業比重與效率關係不如預期；公務員貪瀆不法程度具負向影響，與預期相符，惟未具統計顯著性；教育程度與府會關係，正負向影響皆有，也未具統計顯著性。顯示台灣地方政府公共支出效率較明顯受到人口產業分佈、地方民眾財富不均情況、地方財政自主與債務依存情況之影響。

This paper attempts to build the relationship between local public expenditure and local services, and to analyze the efficiency of 23 local governments’ expenditure of Taiwan. This analysis was performed in two stages. The first stage asseses the relative efficiency scores by applying nonparametric methods-Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Free Disposal Hull (FDH). Seven variables as the output measures and per capita expenditure as the input measure were applied to this stage. The results showed that local governments with ‘high input, high output’ and ‘low input, medium output both possibly achieved the theoretical ‘best-practice’ frontier and served as the reference units for other relative inefficient local governments. The population size has also effects on the efficiency scores. The second stage identified critical variables of efficiency via regression analysis. It revealed that the explanatory variables of the family income,grants and public debts variables were shown negative signs while population density was shown a positive sign. There all were significant as the priori expected. These findings showed that the efficiency of local public expenditure had been significantly affected by the spatial distributions of population and industries, as well as the inequality of wealth and local finance autonomy.