Public Management Reform. A Comparative Analysis

Austerity and fiscal crisis make the search for cost-saving reforms in local government more critical While cost savings from privatization have frequently proven ephemeral, inter-municipal cooperation has been a relatively understudied reform We analyse the literature on cost savings under cooperation and find that savings are dependent on (1) the cost structure of public services, particularly those related to scale and density economies and externalities, (2) the structure of local government (size, metropolitan location, powers granted by the nation or regional state), and (3) the governance framework at the local/regional level where cooperation varies from informal to formal European studies give more emphasis to cost savings, while US studies focus on coordination concerns arising from the higher degree of devolution in the US local government system

http://diposit.ub.edu/dspace/bitstream/2445/67595/1/642531.pdf

Inter-municipal cooperation and costs: expectations and evidence

This is the journal's version originally published in International Journal of Integrated Care. This article is designet as ”Open Access”. © International Journal of Integrated Care: http://www.ijic.org/index.php/ijic/index

/pdf/promoting-coordination-in-norwegian-health-care-39787a99xs.pdf

Promoting coordination in Norwegian health care

Comparative research on inter-municipal cooperation in eight European countries shows that there is a great variety of institutional arrangements for cooperation across the different countries. Also, these arrangements tend to change over time in terms of the scope of cooperation among partners, their composition and the degree of organizational integration. This article describes and analyzes the variety of and shifts in institutional arrangements for a specific class of inter-municipal cooperation arrangements: those that are set up to provide for the joint delivery of public services. It is argued that specific arrangements are typically the outcomes of interaction between national institutional contexts,?environmental factors and local preferences.

/pdf/institutional-shifts-in-inter-municipal-service-delivery-an-2278oidfjx.pdf

Institutional Shifts In Inter-Municipal Service Delivery An analysis of developments in eight Western European countries

The aim of this manuscript is analyse the long-term scale efficiency of the solid waste disposal service, with the application of a new method for calculating time-invariant and time-variant scale inefficiency using DEA panel data estimates, an approach that allows us to analyse the evolution of scale inefficiency over a period of time. The proposed method is applied to the solid waste collection service for the period 2002–2014 to determine the influence exerted by municipal size and form of service management, over an extended period, on service efficiency. The results obtained indicate that joint management forms obtain greater long-term scale efficiency. In addition, it is established that municipalities with populations between 20,000 and 50,000 inhabitants would improve their long-term scale efficiency if the service were outsourced.

Temporal scale efficiency in DEA panel data estimations. An application to the solid waste disposal service in Spain

Inter-Municipal Cooperation: A Widespread Phenomenon

Comparative Analysis and Conclusions

The Netherlands: Cooperation as the only Viable Strategy

This article concerns a relatively novel issue: rule breaking and unlawful conduct by government bodies; to which degree does it occur, what is the nature of this misconduct, what are the underlying motives, and what are the consequences and possible solutions? Rule and law breaking is harmful for the credibility and integrity of a state and its law enforcement system. However, very little empirical research has been carried out into this issue, in comparison to research into state crime. There is little clarity about how public actors deal with criminal and administrative laws and rules in areas like environmental protection, safety regulations and working conditions. Do government bodies set a good example? Is their behaviour better or worse than the public and businesses? An analytical framework for research will be presented and also the results of an extensive research project in the Netherlands; the main themes of which have been benchmarked against data from the United Kingdom. The article will conclude with a summary of the main findings and a number of suggestions for further research and policy development.

/pdf/rule-making-rule-breaking-law-breaking-by-government-in-the-2r02r2nans.pdf

André van Montfort

Papers

Institutional Shifts In Inter-Municipal Service Delivery An analysis of developments in eight Western European countries

Inter-Municipal Cooperation: A Widespread Phenomenon

Comparative Analysis and Conclusions

The Netherlands: Cooperation as the only Viable Strategy

Rule-making, rule-breaking? Law breaking by government in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom