Suchergebnisse

In this article, the author builds a model of local governments' decisions to contract out residential solid waste disposal services and empirically tests this model by using a new dependent variable—proportion of expenditures on a service that goes to expenses other than payroll. The important factors affecting the contracting-out decision are scale economies, nonproperty taxes, difference in private- and public-sector unionization rates, and income and bond rating, in that order. Political and ideological factors appear to be less determinative than economic considerations.

In this article the author seeks to provide a review of the recent literature on contracting out for urban government services in the United States. The review is selective in that the author focuses on analytical frameworks of the contracting out decision, the efficiency argument, empirical efficiency, and cost studies, as well as other considerations such as accountability, equity, and tax consequences. He concludes by wondering whether the common conclusion about the benefits of contracting out urban government services may at times have been exaggerated.