The anatomy of choice: an analysis of the determinants of local service delivery in Poland

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to identify the factors determining the choice between service delivery modes to provide local services. The original choice model proposed by Ferris and Graddy predicts that local officials seek to minimize service delivery costs (production and transaction costs), subject to political and fiscal constraints. The article tests production efficiency and transaction costs hypotheses in relation to the modes of service delivery adopted by local governments in Poland: in-house, corporatisation, cooperation, contracting out. It explores delivery choices of three different services: water supply, local transportation, and home care for elderly people. Based on the results of a nationwide survey addressed to all municipalities we test the aforementioned hypotheses using multinomial logit regression models. The empirical evidence confirms the basic expectations that the externalization of service delivery is a function of local officials' attempt to minimize the sum of production and transaction costs subject to fiscal and political constraints.

Styles of inter-municipal cooperation and the multiple principal problem: a comparative analysis of European Economic Area countries

“…Szmigiel-Rawska, Łukomska, and Tavares (2020) suggest that due to the multiple principal problem, IMC in Poland is more common for services which are easier to monitor, and thus involve fewer transaction costs. IMC institutions are usually dominated by the mayors of the municipalities involved, which is a consequence of the powerful mayoral role in local political leadership in Poland (Swianiewicz 2018b).…”

Intermunicipal cooperation, integration forms, and vertical and horizontal effects in Japan

“…If the asset specificity is too high, the IMC probability decreases, but as the asset specificity increases from low to medium, the IMC probability increases (Shrestha & Feiock, 2011). Measurement difficulties, by contrast, are lower, and are easier to monitor, promoting the externalization of IMC and services (Shrestha & Feiock, 2011; Szmigiel‐Rawska et al, 2021). As such, the discussion in this study targets capital‐intensive services in which collaborative needs originally existed.…”