This paper evaluates whether reforms associated with the New Public Management (NPM) doctrine led to a reduction in public sector expenditure and employees. Savings and downsizing the public sector were a major justification when the international movement of public sector reforms began in the 1980s. Since then, NPM has been the subject of extensive academic debate as to its successes and failures. However, empirical assessments of whether NPM reached its stated objectives are relatively scarce, mainly due to the difficulty of quantifying the impact of such reforms. This paper is an attempt to do this, especially looking at outsourcing and decentralization. We test a number of hypotheses related to the outsourcing and decentralization effects on public sector expenditure and employees through an econometric analysis using a panel data model for eighteen European Countries over the period 1980 to 2010. The results suggest a positive correlation between the degree of outsourcing in the provision of public services and government spending in the short term. On the other hand we find that decentralization tends to decrease the size of general government, particularly in the long-run.Keywords: New Public Management, outsourcing, decentralization, public sector size.

Madrid has recently become the site of one of the most controversial cases of public healthcare reform in the European Union. Despite the fact that the introduction of New Public Management (NPM) into Madrid hospitals has been vigorous, little scholarship has been done to test whether NPM actually led to technical efficiency. This paper is one of the first attempts to do so. We deploy a bootstrapped data envelopment analysis to compare efficiency scores in traditionally managed hospitals and those operating with new management formulas. We do not find evidence that NPM hospitals are more efficient than traditionally managed ones. Moreover, our results suggest that what actually matters may be the management itself, rather than the management model.

Drawing on the literature on public service co-production, we examine the individual-level and local government-level factors associated with pro-environmental behaviours. Statistical analysis suggests that individuals that have high levels of selfefficacy, are more civically engaged or are carers, are more likely to 'co-produce' environmental outcomes. In addition, women, rural-dwellers, university graduates and middle-aged individuals exhibit more pro-environmental behaviours. Further analysis suggests that environmental co-production is more prevalent in areas with a high degree of compatibility between local public services and citizens, but worse recycling services and less overall investment in environmental services.

Research Summary: This study examines the effectiveness of targets as a tool for the contractual governance of cross‐sector partnerships. Applying a difference‐in‐differences methodology, we find that the use of explicit targets within performance contracts is an effective means for improving partnership outcomes, especially where partner diversity and partnership capabilities are high. Furthermore, we find evidence that target intensity is associated with stronger partnership performance. These findings suggest that contractual forms with explicit targets may be a particularly successful approach for enhancing the public value created by cross‐sector partnerships. A downward turn in performance following the removal of targets lends further support to this conclusion. Managerial Summary: Cross‐sector partnerships have become a vital means for creating value in pursuit of the public interest. In particular, the effective management of these partnerships is thought to hold the key to addressing the strategic and organizational challenges posed by major social and environmental issues, such as big data and climate change. In this article, we combine data on waste recycling from 2003 to 2014 with information on performance contracts between local cross‐sector partnerships and higher levels of government in England to quantify the impact of governance by targets on the performance of those partnerships. The benefits of target‐setting for partnership performance that we identify are even stronger when partner diversity is high and partnership capabilities are strong. We discuss the managerial and policy implications of our findings.

Reducing public spending was a major objective when governments across Europe increasingly turned to outsourcing as a mode of public service provision from the 1980s. Today, despite its prevalence, there is still little consensus in the literature on whether outsourcing is an effective policy as regards reducing spending. Using a panel data model for 25 European countries over the period 1990 to 2011, this article tests whether outsourcing actually led to a reduction in public spending. Results indicate that outsourcing failed to reduce government expenditures at the central government level. This finding persists even after controlling for expenditure dynamics and addressing potential endogeneity issues.

Theories of contracting out offer contrasting perspectives on the noneconomic determinants of local government contracting. Some suggest ideological motives predominate, with contracting decisions reflecting the ideology of ruling parties. Others emphasise political motives, with governments responding to local preferences. In this paper, we draw on ideas about isomorphic pressures within organizational fields to examine whether institutional influences might also affect contracting behaviour. Using a spatial auto-regressive probit model, we evaluate whether mimetic pressures as well as ideological and political motives shape the decision to contract out service provision in English local governments. In addition, we analyse whether those factors also determine whether contracting local governments decide to contract with a commercial firm or a not-for-profit provider. The statistical results suggest that the decision to contract out is spatially dependent, and hence reflective of institutional forces. By contrast, political motives and market size considerations shape with whom local governments contract.

This paper evaluates whether reforms associated with the New Public Management (NPM) doctrine led to a reduction in public sector expenditure and employees. Savings and downsizing the public sector were a major justification when the international movement of public sector reforms began in the 1980s. Since then, NPM has been the subject of extensive academic debate as to its successes and failures. However, empirical assessments of whether NPM reached its stated objectives are relatively scarce, mainly due to the difficulty of quantifying the impact of such reforms. This paper is an attempt to do this, especially looking at outsourcing and decentralization. We test a number of hypotheses related to the outsourcing and decentralization effects on public sector expenditure and employees through an econometric analysis using a panel data model for eighteen European Countries over the period 1980 to 2010. The results suggest a positive correlation between the degree of outsourcing in the provision of public services and government spending in the short term. On the other hand we find that decentralization tends to decrease the size of general government, particularly in the long-run.Keywords: New Public Management, outsourcing, decentralization, public sector size.

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