Miles’ law in Finnish municipalities: where decision-makers stand depends on where they sit

Figures & data

Table 1. Factor analysis of 10 statements on service provision.

Variable	1	2	3
Services remain to be provided by the municipality	−.386	.226	.633
Services provided as close as possible to home	.136	−.222	.813
Flexible use of services in the neighbouring municipality possible	.565	.012	.503
Flexible use of services offered by associations and companies possible	.822	.027	.209
High quality service guaranteed, even if the number of service points are reduced	.042	.719	−.226
Flexible use of use digital services possible	.136	.681	.128
More ambulatory services, even if the number of service points are reduced	.-.020	.787	−.047
Publicly funded consumer choice between public and private service providers (vouchers)	.789	−.013	−.148
Greater own responsibility for own health and welfare	.599	.214	−.049
User and service fees to be introduced and/or increased	.605	.034	−.273
Eigenvalue	3.265	1.517	1.156

Note: The entries are results from a factor analysis (Principal component factoring) with promax rotation and all dimensions with eigenvalues over 1 extracted. Loadings between .5 and .6 are shaded in light grey and loadings >0.6 are shaded with dark grey. Eigenvalue of the fourth factor not extracted: 0.903. Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy (KMO) = .768; Bartlett test of sphericity (df = 45): Χ² = 3452.79, p < .001.

Table 2. Summary statistics.

	Obs	Mean/%	Std. Dev.	Min	Max
Dependent variables
Individualization	1470	0.00	1.00	−3.82	2.17
Centralization	1470	0.00	1.00	−3.73	2.24
Localization	1470	0.00	1.00	−3.15	2.46
Independent variable
Position	1575	100.00
Leading official	214	13.59
Board member	355	22.54
Council member	608	38.60
Committee member	398	25.27
Contextual variables
Municipal population size	1575	100.00
Small (<20,000)	310	19.68
Medium (20,000–100,000)	860	54.60
Large (>100,000)	405	25.71
Economic crisis status	1575	0.32	0.17	0.00	0.75
Control variables
Education	1565	0.67	0.33	0.00	1.00
Gender	1549	100.00
Female	670	43.25
Male	879	56.75
Private employment	1575	100.00
No	1093	69.40
Yes	482	30.60
Party affiliation	1501	100.00
Don’t want to say/no answer	211	14.06
National Coalition Party (KOK)	252	16.79
Christian Democrats (KD)	44	2.93
Finns Party (PS)	131	8.73
Swedish Peoples Party (RKP)	128	8.53
Center Party (KESK)	261	17.39
Social Democrats (SD)	286	19.05
Left Alliance (LEFT)	91	6.06
Green Party (GREEN)	97	6.46

Note: Entries are descriptive statistics for continuous and categorical variables.

Table 3. Mean scores on service provision dimensions.

Individualisation		(1) Leading officials	(2) Board member	(3) Council member	(4) Committeemember
Mean (SD)		0.42 (0.80)	0.09 (0.96)	−0.07 (1.03)	−0.21 (1.01)
ANOVA F(3, 1466)=		19.86, p < 0.001
Bonferroni	2	−0.33**
	3	−0.49***	−0.16
	4	−0.63***	−0.30***	−0.14
Centralisation		(1) Leading officials	(2) Board member	(3) Council member	(4) Committeemember
Mean (SD)		0.58(0.86)	−0.01(1.00)	−0.06(0.97)	−0.21(1.01)
ANOVA F(3, 1466))=		30.23, p < 0.000
Bonferroni	2	−0.59***
	3	−0.64***	−0.06
	4	−0.79***	−0.20*	−0.15
Localisation		(1) Leading officials	(2) Board member	(3) Council member	(4) Committeemember
Mean (SD)		−0.47(0.96)	0.03(0.96)	0.05(1.00)	0.15(0.99)
ANOVA F(3, 1466)=		18.32, p < 0.000
Bonferroni	2	0.50***
	3	0.52***	0.02
	4	0.61***	0.11	0.10

Note: Entries are mean values with standard deviations in parentheses. Statistical tests are oneway Anova with Bonferroni post hoc tests. *** p < .000; **p<.01; * p < .05.

Figure 1. Coefplots showing multilevel regression results.

Figure 2. Coefplots showing regression results for interactions.

Figure 3. Predicted scores for centralization and localization across position and contexts.

Table

	Individualisation		Centralisation		Localisation
	M1	M2	M1	M2	M1	M2
Position (ref. Leading official
Board member	−0.734	−0.673	−0.618	−0.237	0.776	0.415
	(0.424)	(0.453)	(0.473)	(0.504)	(0.456)	(0.491)
Council member	−0.825	−0.826	−0.700	−0.389	0.853	0.589
	(0.421)	(0.448)	(0.469)	(0.499)	(0.453)	(0.486)
Committee member	−0.949*	−0.934*	−0.892	−0.607	0.962*	0.325
	(0.424)	(0.459)	(0.472)	(0.513)	(0.456)	(0.500)
Gender	−0.133**	−0.131**	−0.0892	−0.0996	−0.264***	−0.263***
	(0.0475)	(0.0476)	(0.0529)	(0.0526)	(0.0511)	(0.0511)
Education	−0.0520	−0.0555	0.131	0.144	−0.0309	−0.0150
	(0.0776)	(0.0776)	(0.0867)	(0.0860)	(0.0838)	(0.0836)
Employment private sector	−0.00476	−0.00338	−0.0887	−0.0950	−0.0479	−0.0339
	(0.0527)	(0.0527)	(0.0587)	(0.0583)	(0.0567)	(0.0566)
Party affiliation (Ref don’t know)
KOKK	1.093**	1.109**	0.476	0.422	−0.886*	−0.770
	(0.418)	(0.419)	(0.466)	(0.462)	(0.449)	(0.449)
KD	0.528	0.552	−0.0326	−0.0399	−0.0611	0.0255
	(0.436)	(0.437)	(0.485)	(0.481)	(0.468)	(0.467)
PS	0.282	0.305	−0.138	−0.185	−0.0976	0.00653
	(0.421)	(0.422)	(0.469)	(0.465)	(0.452)	(0.451)
RKP	0.484	0.459	0.0888	0.0132	−0.576	−0.440
	(0.423)	(0.424)	(0.472)	(0.468)	(0.456)	(0.454)
KESK	0.602	0.626	−0.00383	−0.0875	−0.313	−0.176
	(0.418)	(0.419)	(0.466)	(0.462)	(0.450)	(0.449)
SOCD	−0.208	−0.191	0.277	0.214	−0.00842	0.125
	(0.418)	(0.419)	(0.466)	(0.462)	(0.449)	(0.449)
LEFT	−0.916*	−0.902*	−0.362	−0.438	0.517	0.650
	(0.424)	(0.425)	(0.473)	(0.469)	(0.456)	(0.456)
GREEN	0.0982	0.111	0.119	0.0606	−0.265	−0.141
	(0.425)	(0.425)	(0.473)	(0.469)	(0.456)	(0.456)
Size of municipality (ref. Less than 20,000)
20,000–100,000	−0.0366	−0.0832	0.280***	0.383*	−0.408***	−0.491**
	(0.0628)	(0.140)	(0.0778)	(0.163)	(0.0819)	(0.161)
More than 100,000	−0.169*	−0.124	0.284**	0.840***	−0.276**	−0.339
	(0.0738)	(0.166)	(0.0929)	(0.196)	(0.0989)	(0.194)
Economic crisis situation	−0.0982	0.0199	0.227	0.518	−0.123	−0.692
	(0.160)	(0.372)	(0.202)	(0.438)	(0.215)	(0.433)
Interactions
Position # Size
Board member # 20000–100,000		0.0933		−0.101		−0.0608
		(0.177)		(0.208)		(0.206)
Board member # More than 100,000		0.0977		−0.544*		0.0705
		(0.213)		(0.254)		(0.252)
Council member # 20000–100,000		−0.0138		−0.256		0.135
		(0.165)		(0.197)		(0.195)
Council member # More than 100,000		−0.0992		−0.864***		0.196
		(0.191)		(0.232)		(0.231)
Committee member # 20000–100,000		0.0959		0.120		0.203
		(0.183)		(0.217)		(0.215)
Committee member # More than 100,000		−0.0830		−0.305		0.0632
		(0.208)		(0.250)		(0.249)
Position # Economic crisis
Board member # Economic crisis situation		−0.439		−0.619		0.804
		(0.477)		(0.565)		(0.561)
Council member # Economic crisis situation		0.0273		0.115		0.168
		(0.434)		(0.523)		(0.520)
Committee member # Economic crisis situation		−0.179		−0.809		1.257*
		(0.453)		(0.550)		(0.548)
Constant	0.650***	0.625***	0.276*	0.0492	−0.0416	0.155
	(0.113)	(0.160)	(0.130)	(0.183)	(0.130)	(0.180)
lns1_1_1
Constant	−2.535***	−12.96	−2.055***	−1.972***	−1.879***	−1.865***
	(0.606)	(395.5)	(0.346)	(0.341)	(0.238)	(0.289)
lnsig_e
Constant	−0.192***	−0.189***	−0.0854***	−0.0980***	−0.122***	−0.129***
	(0.0195)	(0.0191)	(0.0195)	(0.0201)	(0.0194)	(0.0202)
Observations	1372	1372	1372	1372	1372	1372
AIC	3417.6	3432.7	3718.9	3710.7	3625.4	3634.5
BIC	3522.1	3584.2	3823.4	3862.2	3729.9	3786.0