Re-municipalization in the US: a pragmatic response to contracting

ABSTRACT

We conduct a national survey of US local governments and find service outcomes – quality, cost savings and efficiency – are the primary drivers of re-municipalization, not political pressures. Logistic regression of 2,187 governments finds larger, urban and suburban, professionally managed local governments with more service capacity are more likely to report re-municipalization. Fiscal stress perception, local debt, and unionization rates have no effect. Re-municipalization is more likely in governments that also study privatization and conduct activities to ensure successful contracting. Thus, re-municipalization in the US is a pragmatic process of contract management, not primarily driven by political interests.

KEYWORDS:

• Re-municipalization
• reverse privatization
• contracting back-in
• local government
• pragmatic municipalism

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• H44
• H70
• L33

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Grant # 2017-67023-26226.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture [2017- 67023-26226].