Institutional collective action (ICA) dilemmas arise from the division or partitioning of authority in which decisions by one government in one or more specific functional area impacts other governments and/or other functions. The focus on externalities of choice in fragmented systems integrates multiple research traditions into a conceptual system to understand and investigate collective dilemmas ubiquitous in contemporary governance arrangements. The mechanisms for mitigating ICA dilemmas are classified according to their scope and enforcement. Incentives to participate in a mechanism are hypothesized to favor mechanisms that provide the greatest gain for the least cost under different conditions of collaboration risk as determined by the nature of the underlying ICA problem, the compositions of affected jurisdictions, and institutional contexts. After reviewing empirical applications of the framework, an agenda to advance the theoretical and empirical development of the ICA approach is advanced.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/psj.12023

The Institutional Collective Action Framework

Privatization of local government services is assumed to deliver cost savings, but empirical evidence for this from around the world is mixed. We conduct a meta-regression analysis of all econometric studies examining privatization of water distribution and solid waste collection services and find no systematic support for lower costs with private production. Differences in study results are explained by differences in time period of the analyses, service characteristics, and policy environment. We do not find a genuine empirical effect of cost savings resulting from private production. The results suggest that to ensure cost savings, more attention be given to the cost characteristics of the service, the transaction costs involved, and the policy environment stimulating competition, rather than to the debate over public versus private delivery of these services. © 2010 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.

/pdf/is-private-production-of-public-services-cheaper-than-public-2lpdjhlyy9.pdf

Is Private Production of Public Services Cheaper Than Public Production? A Meta-Regression Analysis of Solid Waste and Water Services.

Analysis of local government contracting decisions typically focuses on transactions costs related to service characteristics, especially asset specificity and difficulty of contract management. This analysis expands the focus to include market characteristics (competition), citizen characteristics (public interest in the service delivery process), and place characteristics (metro status and public management) and finds these are the more important factors. A 2007 survey of US city managers’ rankings of 67 services by transactions costs, competition, and citizen interest is combined with a 2007 national survey of city managers’ sourcing decisions (direct public, intergovernment cooperation, for-profit and nonprofit contracting). Multinomial logit models of service delivery sourcing choice find that metro status and competition are key explanatory variables. Intergovernmental cooperation represents an important public market alternative when contract management is difficult and competition is low. For profit contracting is less common when citizen interest is high and competition is low. Governments with professional managers appear more effective in addressing these broader transactions costs of citizen interests, political and labor opposition, and market management.

https://www.maxwell.syr.edu/uploadedFiles/conferences/pmrc/Files/HefetzWarnerJPART2011.pdf

Contracting or Public Delivery? The Importance of Service, Market and Management Characteristics

Austerity and fiscal crisis make the search for cost-saving reforms in local government more critical While cost savings from privatization have frequently proven ephemeral, inter-municipal cooperation has been a relatively understudied reform We analyse the literature on cost savings under cooperation and find that savings are dependent on (1) the cost structure of public services, particularly those related to scale and density economies and externalities, (2) the structure of local government (size, metropolitan location, powers granted by the nation or regional state), and (3) the governance framework at the local/regional level where cooperation varies from informal to formal European studies give more emphasis to cost savings, while US studies focus on coordination concerns arising from the higher degree of devolution in the US local government system

http://diposit.ub.edu/dspace/bitstream/2445/67595/1/642531.pdf

Inter-municipal cooperation and costs: expectations and evidence

Interest in transparency is increasing worldwide. Literature on their determinants is evolving but is still in early stages. So far, it has typically focused on national governments while neglecting local governments. This paper examines the economic, social, and institutional determinants of local government transparency in Spain. We broaden the traditional fiscal focus by including corporate, social, contracting, and planning transparency indexes. Our results indicate that large municipalities and left-wing mayors report better transparency indexes; while the worst results are presented by provincial capitals, touristic cities and mayors with absolute majority. The analysis of specific transparency categories generally shows the consistent impact of these determinants.

/pdf/the-institutional-economic-and-social-determinants-of-local-2gpjcnxqzs.pdf

The institutional, economic and social determinants of local government transparency

http://www.ub.edu/gim/articles%20web/2009/10_BEL_MUR_WM.pdf

Intermunicipal cooperation, privatization and waste management costs: evidence from rural municipalities.

The main objective of this work is to examine whether small municipalities can reduce costs through cooperation and delegation. We first examine factors explaining the decision of municipalities to cooperate and delegate service delivery responsibility, in this case residential solid waste services, to another government. Furthermore, we estimate the impact of cooperation on the costs of providing residential solid waste services. The empirical analysis is done using a sample of small Spanish municipalities. Results of the empirical analysis suggest that cooperation is a pragmatic choice for municipalities with a suboptimal size: municipalities that cooperate by delegating face lower costs for residential solid waste services than those that do not. Furthermore, we find that cooperation allows municipalities to save costs once we control for the form of production and other factors explaining costs.

/pdf/does-cooperation-reduce-service-delivery-costs-evidence-from-4wjg8ns1fe.pdf

Does Cooperation Reduce Service Delivery Costs? Evidence from Residential Solid Waste Services

The aim of this paper is to analyze the effects of intermunicipal cooperation and privatization on the delivery costs of urban solid waste services. The results of our empirical analysis, which we conducted among a sample of very small municipalities, indicate that small towns that cooperate incur lower costs for their waste collection service. Cooperation also raises collection frequency and improves the quality of the service in small towns. By contrast, the form of production, whether it is public or private, does not result in systematic differences in costs. Interestingly, the degree of population dispersion has a significant positive relation with service costs.No evidence of scale economies is found because, it would seem, small municipalities exploit them by means of intermunicipal cooperation.

Intermunicipal cooperation and privatization of solid waste services among small municipalities in Spain

This paper analyzes the cost implications of privatization and cooperation in the provision of solid waste services for a sample of small municipalities. In conducting this empirical analysis, a survey is first designed and administered to municipalities in the Spanish region of Aragon, and then an estimation of the determinants of service costs is undertaken, considering the possible endogeneity of delivery choices. Our findings indicate that cooperation is more effective than privatization in saving costs. Both production forms can enable small municipalities to cut costs by exploiting scale economies. However, the fact that inter-municipal cooperation involves lower transaction costs and is less likely to be affected by competition problems would seem to account for the fact that it is a more effective way of reducing costs.. JEL classification:. L33, R51, H72.

/pdf/privatization-cooperation-and-costs-of-solid-waste-services-1eja5zjm3z.pdf

"Privatization, cooperation and costs of solid waste services in small towns"

The aim of this paper is to analyze the effects of intermunicipal cooperation and privatization on the delivery costs of urban solid waste services. The results of our empirical analysis, which we conducted among a sample of very small municipalities, indicate that small towns that cooperate incur lower costs for their waste collection service. Cooperation also raises collection frequency and improves the quality of the service in small towns. By contrast, the form of production, whether it is public or private, does not result in systematic differences in costs. Interestingly, the degree of population dispersion has a significant positive relation with service costs. No evidence of scale economies is found because, it would seem, small municipalities exploit them by means of intermunicipal cooperation.

/pdf/intermunicipal-cooperation-and-privatization-of-solid-waste-4s25gpazlb.pdf

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Intermunicipal cooperation, privatization and waste management costs: evidence from rural municipalities.

Does Cooperation Reduce Service Delivery Costs? Evidence from Residential Solid Waste Services

Intermunicipal cooperation and privatization of solid waste services among small municipalities in Spain

"Privatization, cooperation and costs of solid waste services in small towns"

Intermunicipal cooperation and privatization of solid waste services among small municipalities in Spain