Shifting modes of service delivery in Dutch local government

Figures & data

Table 1. Number of services switching mode, all domains

		To				Number of shifts	Number of observations
		In-house	Inter-municipal cooperation	Municipality-owned firm	Private firm
From	In-house	77	27	7	8	42	119
	Inter-municipal cooperation	1	12	1	1	3	15
	Municipality-owned firm	2	5	9	2	9	18
	Private firm	17	5	9	23	31	54
	Number of shifts Number of observations	20 97	37 49	17 26	11 34	85 -	- 206

Notes: Numbers in italics indicate shifts toward outside production. Numbers in bold indicate shifts toward inside production.

Table 2. Number of services switching mode, physical domain

		To				Number of shifts	Number of observations
		In-house	Inter-municipal cooperation	Municipality-owned firm	Private firm
From	In-house	38	4	3	7	14	52
	Inter-municipal cooperation	0	1	1	0	1	2
	Municipality-owned firm	0	2	9	1	3	12
	Private firm	2	3	2	10	7	17
	Number of shifts Number of observations	2 40	9 10	6 15	8 18	25 -	- 83

Notes: Numbers in italics indicate shifts toward outside production. Numbers in bold indicate shifts toward inside production.

Table 3. Number of services switching mode, operational domain

		To				Number of shifts	Number of observations
		In-house	Inter-municipal cooperation	Municipality-owned firm	Private firm
From	In-house	31	20	4	1	25	56
	Inter-municipal cooperation	0	3	0	1	1	4
	Municipality-owned firm	2	3	0	1	6	6
	Private firm	15	2	7	13	24	37
	Number of shifts Number of observations	17 48	25 28	11 11	3 16	56 -	- 103

Notes: Numbers in italics indicate shifts toward outside production. Numbers in bold indicate shifts toward inside production.

Figure 1. Percentages of shifting trends (2010–2018)

Figure 2. Percentages of reverse shifting trends (2010–2018)

Table 4. Average asset specificity and measurement difficulty ratings

Municipal service	Asset specificity	Measurement difficulty	Domain
Garbage collection	4.04	1.79	Physical
Sports facilities	3.09	2.75	Physical
Parking management	2.70	2.40	Physical
Maintenance of roads	2.58	2.46	Physical
Maintenance of green	2.42	2.38	Physical
ICT	3.58	3.04	Operational
Cafetaria	2.14	1.48	Operational
Asset valuation	2.04	2.67	Operational
Payroll administration	1.96	1.88	Operational
Catering	1.91	1.55	Operational
Cleaning	1.50	1.71	Operational
Social security department	2.75	2.88	Social

Table 5. Descriptive statistics

Variables	Mean	SD	Min.	Max.
Ownership change, total	0.41	-	0.00	1.00
Change to inside	0.19	-	0.00	1.00
Change to outside	0.22	-	0.00	1.00
Reverse privatization	0.15	-	0.00	1.00
Reverse in-housesation	0.20	-	0.00	1.00
Asset specificity	2.58	0.74	1.50	4.04
Measurement difficulty	2.29	0.52	1.48	3.04
Number of inhabitants	10.20	0.73	9.08	12.03
Population density	5.69	0.99	4.66	7.97
Unemployment benefits	19.59	4.30	9.12	25.27
Average income per household	40.15	4.18	29.90	47.00
Municipal debt per inhabitant	2.58	1.16	0.55	4.98

Notes: N = 206. Variable definitions: Ownership change, total = change in service delivery mode in general; Change to inside = delivery mode changes to more inside production; Change to outside = delivery mode changes to more outside production; Reverse privatization = delivery mode changes from private production; Reverse in-housesation = delivery mode changes from in-house production; Asset specificity = average asset specificity rating by respondents; Measurement difficulty = average measurement difficulty rating by respondents; Number of inhabitants = natural log of number of inhabitants; Population density = natural log of number of inhabitants per square kilometer; Unemployment benefits = number of people with unemployment benefits per 1,000 inhabitants; Average income per household = average income (/1,000) per household; Municipal debt per inhabitant = municipal debt (/1,000) per inhabitant.

Table 6. Logistic regression analysis results

Variables	Ownership change, total	Change to inside	Change to outside	Reverse privatization	Reverse in-housesation
Asset specificity	−0.58***	−0.32	−0.96*	−0.29	−0.74
	(0.22)	(0.24)	(0.53)	(0.32)	(0.46)
Measurement	−0.16	−2.40***	2.14***	−2.69***	1.91***
difficulty	(0.35)	(0.76)	(0.47)	(0.90)	(0.43)
Number of	−0.18	0.35	−0.67	0.22	−0.88*
inhabitants	(0.38)	(0.55)	(0.52)	(0.42)	(0.46)
Population	−0.42	−0.09	−0.59	0.29	−0.45
density	(0.28)	(0.30)	(0.42)	(0.24)	(0.45)
Unemployment	0.03	−0.07	0.09	0.02	0.16*
benefits	(0.07)	(0.09)	(0.09)	(0.04)	(0.09)
Average income	0.07	0.08	0.03	0.09***	0.06
per household	(0.10)	(0.06)	(0.14)	(0.03)	(0.14)
Municipal debt	0.11	−0.30	0.41	−0.36**	0.40
per inhabitant	(0.22)	(0.26)	(0.33)	(0.18)	(0.31)
Intercept	1.97	0.25	1.94	−2.61	0.68
	(5.71)	(5.73)	(9.35)	(4.18)	(9.13)
Model χ^2	18.86***	37.32***	70.20***	38.49***	57.52***
McFadden R^2	7.90%	23.23%	16.19%	23.70%	15.38%

Notes: N = 206; cell statistics are the unstandardized coefficients and clustered standard errors; ***, **, * indicate significance at the 0.01, 0.05 and 0.10 levels (two-tailed), respectively. Variable definitions: See Table 5.