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Wieviel Verwaltung benötigt der Bürger?

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  • Tony Mudrack

Abstract

An important element for measuring the efficiency of public administration is the demand for the number of staff. There are different economic methods to measure the demand. Typically, the determinations are based on the per capita staff. However, the scientific literature documents the insufficiency of per capita based determinations. This paper presents more necessary aspects for measuring the efficiency of public administrations. Besides the measuring of efficiency, the German financial equalization systems also consider differences by the per capita administration staff and deduce additional financial demand. So the German financial equalization systems integrates these additional financial demand by ‘upgrading’ the local population and increases the financial compensation in these upgraded regions. However, the existence and specific amount of the additional demands are discussed very controversially. The German Federal Constitutional Court authorizes the additional financial demand only for duty tasks of public expenditures. Therefore, in the municipal administration there is a need to differentiate between the total number of staff and the number of staff in core administration. The core administration operates only duty tasks of the municipality. Nevertheless, there are a lot of difficulties for interregional comparisons between the German States caused by a missing definition for the core administration. This paper eliminates this deficit by an analysis of 184 municipal staff appointment schemes and selects the core administration for these municipalities. The empirical estimations present highly significant influence of the settlement structure and other determinants for the per capita number of staff and the per capita staff expenditures. Inter alia overhead costs are noticed which cause temporary additional financial demands. A recognition of these additional financial demands in the public administration are still missed in the German financial equalization system and the measuring of efficiency. Copyright Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015

Suggested Citation

  • Tony Mudrack, 2015. "Wieviel Verwaltung benötigt der Bürger?," Review of Regional Research: Jahrbuch für Regionalwissenschaft, Springer;Gesellschaft für Regionalforschung (GfR), vol. 35(2), pages 211-240, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jahrfr:v:35:y:2015:i:2:p:211-240
    DOI: 10.1007/s10037-014-0093-1
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    6. Färber, Gisela & Stiller, Silvia & Schaft, Wolfgang, 1999. "Zur Einstellungspräferenz von BeamtInnen und Angestellten im Schulbereich," HWWA Reports 195, Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWA).
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Öffentliche Finanzen; Interregionale Unterschiede; Öffentliche Personalausgaben; Deutscher Fiskalföderalismus; Deutsche Finanzausgleichssysteme; H11; H31; H72; H73; H76; H77; Public Finances; Interjurisdictional Differentials; Public Staff Expenditures; German Fiscal Federalism; German Financial Equalization System;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H11 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Structure and Scope of Government
    • H31 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Household
    • H72 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Budget and Expenditures
    • H73 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Interjurisdictional Differentials and Their Effects
    • H76 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Other Expenditure Categories
    • H77 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Intergovernmental Relations; Federalism

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