IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i2p591-d477657.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An Empirical Analysis of Scale Economies in Administrative Intensity in the Paraná State Local Government System in Brazil

Author

Listed:
  • Luan V. Bernardelli

    (Department of Management and Economics, State University of Paraná, Apucarana 86813-010, Paraná, Brazil)

  • Brian E. Dollery

    (UNE Business School, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia)

  • Michael A. Kortt

    (School of Business and Tourism, Southern Cross University, Coolangatta, QLD 4225, Australia)

Abstract

A substantial empirical study has investigated scale economies in local government functions, most notably in local transportation, water, and wastewater provision. By contrast, relatively little effort has been directed at the empirical analysis of economies of scale in municipal administration, including in Brazilian local government, despite its significance for public policy on structural reform in local government. In order to address this gap in the literature, we investigate administrative scale economies in the Paraná state local government system in Brazil over the period 2006 to 2018. We find that there was a ‘U-shaped’ scale effect between council size by population and administrative intensity after controlling for a range of economic and social variables. Various public policy implications are considered.

Suggested Citation

  • Luan V. Bernardelli & Brian E. Dollery & Michael A. Kortt, 2021. "An Empirical Analysis of Scale Economies in Administrative Intensity in the Paraná State Local Government System in Brazil," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-13, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:2:p:591-:d:477657
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/2/591/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/2/591/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Santiago Lago-Peñas & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez (ed.), 2013. "The Challenge of Local Government Size," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 15294.
    2. Lewis, Blane D., 2003. "Local Government Borrowing and Repayment in Indonesia: Does Fiscal Capacity Matter?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 1047-1063, June.
    3. Burchell, R.W. & Mukherji, S., 2003. "Conventional Development Versus Managed Growth: The Costs of Sprawl," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 93(9), pages 1534-1540.
    4. Michael A. Kortt & Brian Dollery & Joseph Drew, 2016. "Municipal Mergers in New Zealand: An Empirical Analysis of the Proposed Amalgamation of Hawke’s Bay Councils," Local Government Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(2), pages 228-247, March.
    5. Jacob Bikker & Daan van der Linde, 2016. "Scale economies in local public administration," Local Government Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(3), pages 441-463, May.
    6. Blane Lewis, 2006. "Local government taxation: An analysis of administrative cost inefficiency," Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(2), pages 213-233.
    7. Luan Vinicius Bernardelli & Michael A. Kortt & Brian Dollery, 2020. "Economies of scale and Brazilian local government expenditure: evidence from the State of Paraná," Local Government Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(3), pages 436-458, May.
    8. Carolyn Tran & Michael Kortt & Brian Dollery, 2019. "Population size or population density? An empirical examination of scale economies in South Australian local government, 2015/16," Local Government Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(5), pages 632-653, September.
    9. Shoko Haneda & Akihiro Hashimoto & Takao Tsuneyoshi, 2012. "Evaluating Administrative Efficiency Change in the Post-Merger Period," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 35(2), pages 237-262, April.
    10. Siew King Ting & Brian Dollery & Rene Villano, 2014. "Administrative scale economies in local government: An empirical analysis of Sabah municipalities, 2000 to 2009," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 51(13), pages 2899-2915, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jos L. T. Blank & Thomas K. Niaounakis, 2021. "Economies of Scale and Sustainability in Local Government: A Complex Issue," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-10, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gerard Turley & John McDonagh & Stephen McNena & Arkadiusz Grzedzinski, 2018. "Optimum Territorial Reforms in Local Government: An Empirical Analysis of Scale Economies in Ireland," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 49(4), pages 463-488.
    2. Caillan Fellows & Brian Dollery & Carolyn‐Thi Thanh Dung Tran, 2022. "Is Bigger More Efficient? An Empirical Analysis of Scale Economies in Administration in South Australian Local Government," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 41(1), pages 54-67, March.
    3. Tavares Antonio F., 2018. "Municipal amalgamations and their effects: a literature review," Miscellanea Geographica. Regional Studies on Development, Sciendo, vol. 22(1), pages 5-15, March.
    4. United Cities and Local Governments, 2011. "Local Government Finance," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 14696.
    5. Juan Luis Gómez-Reino & Santiago Lago-Peñas & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, 2021. "Evidence on economies of scale in local public service provision: a meta-analysis," Working Papers. Collection A: Public economics, governance and decentralization 2103, Universidade de Vigo, GEN - Governance and Economics research Network.
    6. Siew King Ting & Brian Dollery & Rene Villano, 2014. "Administrative scale economies in local government: An empirical analysis of Sabah municipalities, 2000 to 2009," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 51(13), pages 2899-2915, October.
    7. World Bank, 2003. "Decentralizing Indonesia : A Regional Public Expenditure Review Overview Report," World Bank Publications - Reports 14632, The World Bank Group.
    8. Hirota, Haruaki & Iwata, Kazuyuki & Tanaka, Kenta, 2022. "Is public official training effective at reducing costs? Evidence from survey data on Japanese municipal mergers," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 145-158.
    9. repec:ces:ifodre:v:24:y:2016:i:04:p:45-49 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Nora Libertun de Duren & Roberto Guerrero Compeán, 2016. "Growing resources for growing cities: Density and the cost of municipal public services in Latin America," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 53(14), pages 3082-3107, November.
    11. Brian Dollery & Michael Kortt & Bligh Grant, 2013. "Options for rationalizing local government structure: a policy agenda," Chapters, in: Santiago Lago-Peñas & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez (ed.), The Challenge of Local Government Size, chapter 10, pages 242-262, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    12. Ahlfeldt, Gabriel M. & Wendlan, Nicolai, 2008. "Spatial Determinants of CBD Emergence: A Micro-level Case Study on Berlin∗," MPRA Paper 11572, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Zahirovich-Herbert, Velma & Gibler, Karen M., 2014. "The effect of new residential construction on housing prices," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 1-18.
    14. Saarimaa, Tuukka & Tukiainen, Janne, 2016. "Local representation and strategic voting: Evidence from electoral boundary reforms," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 31-45.
    15. Pietro Previtali & Eugenio Salvati, 2021. "Area Social Plans and Local Governance of Interorganizational Collaborations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-16, January.
    16. Randall G. Holcombe & DeEdgra W. Williams, 2008. "The Impact of Population Density on Municipal Government Expenditures," Public Finance Review, , vol. 36(3), pages 359-373, May.
    17. Hirota, Haruaki & Yunoue, Hideo, 2020. "Public investment and the fiscal common pool problem on municipal mergers in Japan," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 124-135.
    18. Edoardo Di Porto & Angela Parenti & Sonia Paty & Zineb Abidi, 2017. "Local government cooperation at work: a control function approach," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 17(2), pages 435-463.
    19. Muhammad Adil Rauf & Olaf Weber, 2021. "Urban infrastructure finance and its relationship to land markets, land development, and sustainability: a case study of the city of Islamabad, Pakistan," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 5016-5034, April.
    20. Dan Luo & Ronghua Ju, 2011. "County‐level fiscal strait and resolutions in China," China Agricultural Economic Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 3(2), pages 210-223, May.
    21. Delucchi, Mark & Kurani, Ken, 2010. "How We Can Have Safe, Clean, Convenient, Affordable, Pleasant Transportation Without Making People Drive Less or Give Up Suburban Living," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt0x92n7rg, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:2:p:591-:d:477657. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.