The concept of coproduction of public services has captured increased attention as a potential means of increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of local government. In this article we explore the concept of coproduction in an effort to sharpen the definition of that concept and add rigor to our understanding of the effects of coproduction in local service delivery and the processes by which coproductive activity occurs.In recent years, attention to the productive activities of consumers has increased. This attention is most common for service production (Fuchs, 1968;and Garn, et al., 1976 The role of consumers in producing public services has received particular attention. Partly in response to fiscal pressures and partly due to evidence regarding the inefficacy of their own unaided efforts, some public producers are increasing consumer involvement in service production (e.g., community anticrime efforts such as Neighborhood Watch or solid waste collection agencies' replacement of backyard with curbside trash pickup). In other service areas, consumers are demanding an increased role (e.g., parents and students working with groups like PUSH FOR EXCELLENCE to improve education services or the Wellness movement among health service consumers). Most analysts of pub-*This paper results from regular discussion among the several authors that have extended over the past 2 years. Parks took responsibility for getting these ideas on paper at this time.
This article posits an institutional theory of citizen coproduction beginning with a relatively new economic theory of consumption that presents consumers as producers of the items they consume. The theory distinguishes between goods produced by the private market or public agencies and commodities that consumers produce from those goods. When a public agency and citizens produce the same commodity, it is called "coproduction." This article argues that institutional arrangements play an important role in encouraging or discouraging citizens from coproducing commodities, and introduces the concept of an "institutional rule configuration" as a mechanism to investigate that role. The formal analysis shows three separate rule configurations involving changes affecting citizens' ability to obtain commodity outcomes. By manipulating rule sets, called "boundary rules" and "authority rules," different situations are created and implications drawn from each for citizen coproduction. The article suggests how boundary and authority rules might be used separately as alternative policy instruments to encourage citizen coproduction. It also recommends how the rule sets might be used together to compensate for disincentive effects one rule set might create alone.
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