Local government efficiency: determinants and spatial interdependence

Balaguer-Coll, María Teresa; Brun-Martos, María Isabel; Márquez‐Ramos, Laura; Prior, Diego

doi:10.1080/00036846.2018.1527458

Cited by 34 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 68 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Refs [15][16][17][18][19] provide a detailed literature review on the topic of efficiency in water resource management. Moreover, some studies are also focused on Spain [20][21][22][23][24][25]. The inefficiencies associated with restrictions on the use of water, investments, and current price agreements lead to problems connected to the deterioration of water quality and the infrastructures, and the increase in access costs [16] affecting the citizens' well-being.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is a fact that local governments have the ability to directly manage the provision of services related to the drinking water and sanitation, or to outsource this service to a private company. In recent years, the trend towards the privatization of services has been growing, which should lead to an increase in perceived efficiency and cost savings for citizens [20]. In this perspective, many local governments have outsourced the provision of services related to water resources in order to increase efficiency and receive a fee from private companies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Achieving Sustainable Development Goals. Efficiency in the Spanish Clean Water and Sanitation Sector

2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In recent years, achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is becoming a major challenge for local governments. This research focuses on the role of Spanish local governments in the fulfillment of SDG-6, which aims to ensure the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all citizens. Specifically, this study analyses the evolution of the efficiency of Spanish local governments, and its determining factors, in the achievement of the SDG-6. The results indicate that the taxes associated with water supply and sanitation services, the private management of these services, population density, local government budget revenues, the income of the inhabitants of the municipality and the fragmentation of local governments are factors that can improve the evolution of the efficiency of Spanish local governments in achieving the SDG-6.Sustainability 2020, 12, 3015 2 of 13 debate on the efficiency in the management of water resources, which has become even more relevant with Agenda 2030 and, in particular, in relation to SDG-6. In this regard, measuring the evolution of the efficiency in the provision of water supply and sanitation services, and identifying how it can be improved to achieve SDG-6, is a further step towards the prosperity of the planet and people. However, despite the relevance of the topic, previous studies have investigated the efficiency of local governments in the provision of drinking water through Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and regression models. These approaches do not allow the measurement of inter-annual efficiency. In light of this, there is a clear need for more advanced methodologies capable of enabling a better understanding of the phenomenon. In this regard, our study aims to fill this important gap by using a different approach, represented by the Malmquist index (inter-annual evolution of efficiency) and a truncated regression model. In fact, this methodology allows an assessment of the inter-annual evolution of the efficiency of Spanish local governments in relation to the resources used to achieve SDG-6.Regarding the analysis of the determinants, this study investigates the impact of the characteristics of the service and the demographic, economic, and political factors of the municipality represented by taxes, type of management, population density, level of tourism, citizens' income, political ideology and political strength of the government.The structure of this study is organized as follows. After this introduction, we review the literature analyzing the relevance of SDGs and the determinants of efficiency in water supply and sanitation. Section 3 presents the methodology, referring to the sample, variables, and econometric model. Section 4 presents the results and discussion. Finally, in Section 5, we draw the main conclusions and implications of our findings, the limitations of the study, and the directions for further research. Literature Review

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Achieving Sustainable Development Goals. Efficiency in the Spanish Clean Water and Sanitation Sector

2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Furthermore, it should be noted that the DEA method has several drawbacks. In particular, the sensitivity to outliers and susceptibility to measurement errors should be mentioned here (Balaguer-Coll et al, 2019). Therefore, we have decided to use a robust non-parametric methodology, namely the order-m method, which is outlined in detail in the Daraio and Simar (2005) article.…”

Section: Methods Of the Measurement Of Communal Investment Expenditurementioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of social participation on the efficiency of communal investment expenditure

Tomal

Nalepka

2020

Economic Research-Ekonomska Istraživanja

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The main objective of the article is to determine, on the example of the communes of the Małopolska Province, the factors that affect the efficiency of communal investment expenditures, with particular emphasis on social participation. In order to achieve this aim, appropriate two-stage empirical studies were designed. In the first stage, the efficiency of communal investment expenditure was determined using the DEA and order-m methods for all studied local government units. In turn, the second stage of the empirical study was based on an econometric analysis, which indicated that the examined efficiency is influenced by the following factors: location of the commune in the Cracow metropolitan area, level of communal investment expenditure per capita, intensity of use of external sources of financing communal investment, and level of social participation in the commune. ARTICLE HISTORY

show abstract

“…They found significant evidence consistent with both the pure and the competitive learning process. More recently, Balaguer‐Coll et al () investigated the existence of spatial patterns in the government efficiency of 524 municipalities of the Valencia region in Spain, using the robust order‐m methodology for estimating a municipal efficiency index. Their empirical analysis highlights the crucial role played by spatial interaction in determining the local government efficiency of Valencian municipalities.…”

Section: Theoretical Background and Empirical Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Spatial interdependence in fiscal policy decisions of local governments has received increasing attention over the last 25 years. Although the presence of spatial patterns in the levels of local public expenditure and taxation has been extensively investigated (for reviews, see Brueckner, ; Revelli, , ), few studies have analysed whether the efficiency of local governments in the provision of public goods and services also depends on neighbourhood decisions (Balaguer‐Coll, Brun‐Martos, Márquez‐Ramos, & Prior, ; Bollino, di Vaio, & Polinori, ; Geys, ; Revelli & Tovmo, ). Political “yardstick competition” (Besley & Case, ; Salmon, ), due to citizens' benchmarking, could be one of the plausible determinants of mimicking behaviour in local government efficiency.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial effects on local government efficiency

Santolini

2020

Papers in Regional Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Little attention has been paid to the spatial pattern of local government efficiency. This paper intends to fill this gap by conducting an empirical analysis of a sample of 246 Italian municipalities over the decade 1998–2008. Municipal government efficiency is measured in terms of the speed of payments. Estimation results reveal that municipalities mimic the speed with which public spending is carried out by their neighbours. Political yardstick competition is found to be the source of mimicking behaviour in the speed of payments.

show abstract

Local government efficiency: determinants and spatial interdependence

Cited by 34 publications

References 68 publications

Achieving Sustainable Development Goals. Efficiency in the Spanish Clean Water and Sanitation Sector

Achieving Sustainable Development Goals. Efficiency in the Spanish Clean Water and Sanitation Sector

The impact of social participation on the efficiency of communal investment expenditure

Spatial effects on local government efficiency

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About