https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0573-6637
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ABSTRACT
The aim of the paper is to identify the factors determining the choice between service delivery modes to provide local services. The original choice model proposed by Ferris and Graddy predicts that local officials seek to minimise service delivery costs (production and transaction costs), subject to political and fiscal constraints. The article tests production efficiency and transaction costs hypotheses in relation to the modes of service delivery adopted by local governments in Poland: in-house, corporatisation, cooperation, contracting out. It explores delivery choices of three different services: water supply, local transportation, and home care for elderly people. Based on the results of a nationwide survey addressed to all municipalities we test the aforementioned hypotheses using multinomial logit regression models. The empirical evidence confirms the basic expectations that the externalisation of service delivery is a function of local officials’ attempt to minimise the sum of production and transaction costs subject to fiscal and political constraints.
Acknowledgments
An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2018 European Consortium of Political Research meeting in Wroclaw, Poland. The authors would like to thank Germà Bel, Adam Gendźwiłł, Kurt Houlberg, Paweł Swianiewicz, and Filipe Teles for providing useful comments on this earlier version. The view expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Polish National Science Centre or the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. There are a few exceptions to this general statement. Mixed companies with a majority of private capital are a hybrid of corporatisation and contracting out, inter-municipal corporations are a hybrid of corporatisation and inter-municipal cooperation, and inter-municipal contracts with a private firm a hybrid of inter-municipal cooperation and contracting.
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Notes on contributors
Katarzyna Szmigiel-Rawska
Katarzyna Szmigiel-Rawska is an associate professor in the Department of Local Development and Policy at the Faculty of Geography and Regional Studies of the University of Warsaw. Her research focuses on local government studies and is characterised by interdisciplinarity – mainly between economics and political sciences, with insights into the local scale of phenomena. Current research topics are local public service provision, local climate policy, territorial cooperation and reforms as well as land use management. She has written numerous articles and book chapters and written or edited six books.
Julita Łukomska
Julita Łukomska is an assistant professor in the Department of Local Development and Policy, at the Faculty of Geography and Regional Studies of the University of Warsaw. She has an interest in local politics and local government finance, and recently her research and publications have focused on the local public service provision, land use management and the local tax and fee policies of Polish municipalities.
António F. Tavares
António F. Tavares is an associate professor and a member of the Centre for Research in Political Science at the School of Economics and Management of the University of Minho in Braga, Portugal. His research interests include local public service delivery, land use management, and civic engagement and political participation. He is a co-editor of Urban Affairs Review and has published in various journals in the fields of political science, public administration, and urban studies.