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I briefly summarize various public management reforms since the 1980s in OECD countries and emphasize human resources reforms introduced by the new public management. I first try to define what is involved in the notion of public management, in particular in the literature on management and in the field of the economics of personnel. I recall the main framework of the principal-agent model and highlight the perverse effects of incentives and performance indicators, primarily in the unequal treatment of users and the demotivation of staff and users.