“[E]mpirical evidence about the inefficiency and motives of the public sector is minimal.”

The quotation above comes from page 16 of a public finance textbook by Robin Boadway and Anwar Shah (Fiscal Federalism: Principles and Practice of Multiorder Governance, Cambridge UP 2009).

Is that right? Let me throw out just one counterexample: Bates, Markets and States in Tropical Africa.