The Roles of Regional Organizations for Interlocal Resource Exchange

Abstract

This article investigates competing visions of how regional organizations influence cooperation among individual local governments within a metropolitan area. As network brokers among local governments, regional organizations can reduce the transaction costs of self-governing solutions to regional problems through bargaining and contracting among local units, but their centralized activities might also crowd out interlocal exchanges. Florida Regional Planning Councils are examined to test competing hypotheses based on these two visions, identifying the influence of regional organizations’ governance and activities on interlocal revenue transfers among municipal governments. Evidence that regional organizations can complement as well as substitute for interlocal cooperation is reported. In conclusion we discuss these findings in the context of vertical and horizontal federalism and theories of institutional collective action.

The Institutional Collective Action Framework

“…Kwon et al. () examined how transaction costs influence the performance of regional districts. Tavares and his associates report similar results for Portuguese local governments and confirm the importance of transaction costs in collaboration decisions (Rodrigues, Tavares, & Araújo, ; Tavares, ; Tavares & Camões, ).…”

“…On the other hand, Kwon et al. () find that regional authorities can crowd out informal networks and interlocal agreements.…”

“…In the latter case, they are regarded as "creatures of the state" and have broad obligations that are at least partially imposed by central authorities. Decentralized relations may complement self-organizing efforts among local governments for solving common problems, but more centralized and encompassing structures and solutions sometimes crowd out voluntary self-organizing collaboration efforts (Brooks, 2000;Kwon, Feiock, & Bae, 2012;Lubell, Schneider, Scholz, & Mete, 2002).…”

“…For example, many states use regional-level multipurpose special districts to mitigate the horizontal problem of metropolitan service provision for geographic consolidation of services like planning, resource management, schools, or emergency services (Andrew, 2009a;Mullin, 2009). Kwon et al (2012) examined how transaction costs Table 2.…”

Regional Partnerships and Metropolitan Economic Development

“…A variety of private, nonprofit, and quasi‐public regional institutions are components of what Hawkins () refers to as metropolitan development networks (Hawkins, ; Hawkins & Andrew, ). Kwon, Feiock, and Bae () assert that as network brokers among local governments regional organizations can reduce the transaction costs of self‐governing solutions to regional problems through bargaining and contracting among local units; their centralized activities might also crowd out self‐organizing interlocal exchanges. Nonprofit and for‐profit organizations that operate as third parties can thus facilitate intergovernmental cooperation.…”