The solution of socially important problems by providing budget investments is a prerequisite for the successful development of a country as a whole as well as of a particular region. In terms of a limited budget there is a problem of projects selection. In the paper basic methods of public sector projects performance estimation (cost — benefit, cost — effectiveness, cost — utility) are compared. It is determined that these methods can help to increase the efficiency of scarce budgetary resources usage. However they cannot be applied in Russia without necessary adjustments since there are market imperfections, high costs of collecting necessary information, and other factors. Thus further development of performance estimation methods in the public sector of economics is needed.