The paper by our researcher Branko Stanić, Local Government Efficiency in Slavonia: A DEA-Based Assessment of Community Development, was awarded the best scientific paper at the 14th international scientific conference Region, Entrepreneurship, Development, held on June 5, 2025, at the Faculty of Economics in Osijek.

The paper analyses the relative efficiency of 127 cities and municipalities in the Slavonia, a region facing persistent development challenges – including economic underperformance, demographic decline, and structural inequalities. The study aims to identify which local governments are most efficient in using limited public resources to achieve development outcomes.

Using a two-stage non-parametric Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), the first stage assessed how efficiently local governments convert total public expenditures into outcomes across five development dimensions: economic development, education, environmental sustainability, digital infrastructure, and civic participation. In the second stage, a super-efficiency model was applied to rank and cluster the units based on their efficiency levels.

The results reveal considerable differences in efficiency, with the municipalities of Čeminac, Klakar, and Punitovci, as well as the City of Osijek, standing out as key benchmark units and examples of good practice. The study highlights that efficiency is not solely determined by the size of a local government or its available resources, but also by how effectively those resources are used.

The paper offers a replicable model for evaluating local government performance and contributes to policy efforts aimed at promoting balanced and sustainable local development.

The research was conducted as part of the project Efficiency of public services at local government levels – definitions, measurements and analyses (EPS), funded through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan 2021 – 2026.

The full paper is available in the conference proceedings.