What Determines Local Governments' Cost-efficiency? The Case of Road Maintenance

Abstract

KALB A. What determines local governments' cost-efficiency? The case of road maintenance, Regional Studies. This paper investigates the determinants of local governments' cost-efficiency in road maintenance for a panel of German counties using a broad variety of estimation approaches. More specifically, efficiency indices were calculated using non-parametric and parametric reference technologies, and were examined by estimating and comparing four different regression models. The results show that the disposable income of the counties' citizens, intergovernmental grants and the municipalities' payments to the counties influence efficiency negatively. Concerning political variables the results show weak evidence that efficiency decreases with an increasing share of seats of left-wing parties in the county council. Cost-efficiencyRoad maintenance Stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) Data envelopment analysis (DEA) German countiesQu'est-ce qui détermine le rapport coût-efficacité des collectivités locales? Étude de cas de la voirie, Regional Studies. Employant une grande variété de méthodes d'estimation, cet article examine sur le plan des collectivités locales les déterminants du rapport coût-efficacité de la voirie pour un panel de Länders allemands. Plus précisément, on a calculé des indices d'efficience à partir des technologies de référence paramétriques et non-paramétriques, et on les examinent en estimant et en comparant quatre modèles de régression différents. Les résultats laissent voir que le revenu disponible des citoyens des Länders, les aides intergouvernementales et les paiements des municipalités aux Länders influent de façon négative sur l'efficience. Pour ce qui est des variables politiques, les résultats laissent voir de faibles preuves que l'efficience diminue au fur et à mesure que la part des sièges des partis de gauche augmente dans les Länders. Rapport coût-efficacité Voirie Analyse de Frontières Stochastiques Analyse d'Enveloppement des Données Länders KALB A. Wovon hängt die Kosteneffizienz der Kreisverwaltung ab? Der Fall der Straßensanierung, Regional Studies. In diesem Beitrag werden die Determinanten für die Kosteneffizienz der Kreisverwaltung bei der Straßensanierung anhand eines Panels von deutschen Landkreisen mit Hilfe eines breiten Spektrums von Schätzungsansätzen untersucht. Insbesondere werden die Effizienzindizes mit Hilfe von nicht-parametrischen und parametrischen Referenztechniken berechnet und durch Schätzen und Vergleichen von vier verschiedenen Regressionsmodellen untersucht. Aus den Ergebnissen geht hervor, dass sich das verfügbare Einkommen der Bürger des Landkreises, der Finanzausgleich und die Zahlungen der Gemeinden an die Landkreise negativ auf die Effizienz auswirken. Hinsichtlich der politischen Variablen weisen die Ergebnisse wenige Anzeichen dafür auf, dass die Effizienz bei einem höheren Anteil von linksgerichteten Parteien im Kreistag abnimmt. Kosteneffizienz Straßensanierung Stochastische Effizienzgrenzenanalyse (SFA) Dateneinhüllanalyse (DEA) Deutsche LandkreiseK...

Analyzing the Efficiency of County Road Production – Evidence from Eastern German Counties

“…I describe how these data are captured in Section . When correlating these data with data on the number of accidents on county roads due to poor road conditions, the relationship between the condition of county roads and the number of accidents is positive, albeit to a much weaker extent (Pearson correlation coefficient: 0.0475; statistically not significant) than expected by Kalb () (see also Figure )…”

“…However, any assumption on the correlation implies that driving behavior is, to a certain extent, independent of road quality. In fact, an increase in the number of accidents could also be caused by good road conditions (see Kalb, ). As highlighted by Mankiw (), people might change their behavior when the costs and benefits change : drivers operate their cars in such a way that comfort, speed and the prevention of accidents are in balance.…”

“…Germany provides an excellent setting for an empirical efficiency analysis. First, German counties are a good research subject because they rely on the same institutional framework, but differences in expenditure decisions are to be expected (see also Kalb, ) : counties constitute the third layer of government beneath the federal and the state levels and are distinguished as either rural ( Landkreise ) or urban ( Kreisfreie Städte ) counties. Urban counties simultaneously represent a county and a (one) municipality, while rural counties represent several municipalities.…”

“… The results reported by Kalb (), who applies DEA with input orientation and variable returns‐to‐scale for the state of Baden‐Württemberg. …”

Local governments' efficiency: a systematic literature review—part I

“…Following De Borger and Kerstens (), it is possible to identify two strands of empirical research. On the one hand, some studies concentrate on the evaluation of a particular local service, such as refuse collection and street cleaning (Worthington and Dollery, , ; Bosch et al., ; Benito‐López et al., , ), water services (García‐Sánchez, ), street lighting (Lorenzo and Sánchez, ), fire services (García‐Sánchez, ), library services (Stevens, ), and road maintenance (Kalb, ). On the other hand, other studies evaluate local performance from a “global point of view” considering that local governments supply a wide variety of services and facilities.…”