Journal Articles

Contracting or Public Delivery? The Importance of Service, Market, and Management Characteristics

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Analysis of local government contracting decisions typically focuses on transactions costs related to service characteristics, especially asset specificity and difficulty of contract management. This analysis expands the focus to include market characteristics (competition), citizen characteristics (public interest in the service delivery process), and place characteristics (metro status and public management) and finds these are the more important factors. A 2007 survey of US city managers’ rankings of 67 services by transactions costs, competition, and citizen interest is combined with a 2007 national survey of city managers’ sourcing decisions (direct public, intergovernment cooperation, for-profit and nonprofit contracting). Multinomial logit models of service delivery sourcing choice find that metro status and competition are key explanatory variables. Intergovernmental cooperation represents an important public market alternative when contract management is difficult and competition is low. For profit contracting is less common when citizen interest is high and competition is low. Governments with professional managers appear more effective in addressing these broader transactions costs of citizen interests, political and labor opposition, and market management.

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Detail Information

Series Title

Journal of Public Administration Research & Theory

Call Number

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Publisher

Oxford, UK : Oxford University Press., 2012

Collation

p. 289-317

Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

1053-1858

Classification

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Content Type

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Media Type

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Carrier Type

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Edition

Volume 22 Issue 2 April 2012 p. 289-317

Subject(s)

Management
Local government
Competition

Specific Detail Info

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