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The rapid growth of public spending and the need to assess its impact on the welfare system has made the studies of productivity in the public sector an important subject. This paper is concerned with the specification and estimation of total factor productivity growth using the primal panel data approach. The total factor productivity growth is decomposed into technical change and scale components. Several competing models are used to explore whether there are any similarities in the estimates of total factor productivity growth and technical change among these models. The models are estimated using different estimation methods. Some of the models, although assuming a Cobb–Douglas technology, exhibit firm-specific technical change. These models are used to measure productivity growth in departments of gynecology and obstetrics in Sweden. Empirical results show evidence of large and negative rate of productivity growth. In comparison among different specifications proposed, the level and the time pattern of productivity measures vary substantially across models and estimation methods. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]