IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/jpamgt/v23y2004i3p489-507.html

A simple estimation method for aggregate government outsourcing

Author

Listed:
  • Stephen Minicucci

    (Consortium on Financing Higher Education, Cambridge, Massachusetts)

  • John D. Donahue

    (Collaborative Governance, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University)

Abstract

The scholarly and popular debate on the delegation to the private sector of governmental tasks rests on an inadequate empirical foundation, as no systematic data are collected on direct versus indirect service delivery. We offer a simple method for approximating levels of service outsourcing, based on relatively straightforward combinations of and adjustments to standard statistical series, primarily the National Income and Product Account and the Government Finances series produced by the Department of Commerce. The method permits us to separately estimate state and local from federal service outsourcing and (within the federal government) to distinguish between defense and non-defense services. Alternative estimates, both including and excluding Medicare and Medicaid, are included, as are estimates of outsourcing from 1959 through 2000. The method confirms the general view that the privately provided share of public services has increased, particularly in the last two decades of the past century. But this increase has been shallower than many observers suggest, and as of 2000 more than two-thirds of the government's service budget was still devoted to employee compensation. © 2004 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephen Minicucci & John D. Donahue, 2004. "A simple estimation method for aggregate government outsourcing," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(3), pages 489-507.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:jpamgt:v:23:y:2004:i:3:p:489-507
    DOI: 10.1002/pam.20023
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1002/pam.20023
    File Function: Link to full text; subscription required
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/pam.20023?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer & Robert Vishny, 1997. "Privatization in the United States," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 28(3), pages 447-471, Autumn.
    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. Alonso, José M. & Clifton, Judith & Díaz-Fuentes, Daniel, 2017. "The impact of government outsourcing on public spending: Evidence from European Union countries," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 333-348.
    2. repec:rnp:ppaper:mn13 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Mar Delgado-Téllez & José Federico Geli & Enrique Moral-Benito & Javier J. Pérez, 2022. "Outsourcing and public expenditure: an aggregate perspective with regional data," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(8), pages 1347-1358, August.
    4. José M. Alonso & Judith Clifton & Daniel Díaz-Fuentes, 2015. "Did New Public Management Matter? An empirical analysis of the outsourcing and decentralization effects on public sector size," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(5), pages 643-660, May.
    5. Germa Bel & Anton Costas, 2004. "Do public sector reforms get rusty? An empirical analysis on privatization of solid waste collection," Public Economics 0409014, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    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. Cooray, Arusha, 2011. "The role of the government in financial sector development," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 928-938, May.
    2. Adam B. Jaffe & Josh Lerner, 1999. "Privatizing R&D: Patent Policy and the Commercialization of National Laboratory Technologies," NBER Working Papers 7064, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Jan Hagemejer & Joanna Tyrowicz, 2011. "Not All That Glitters," Eastern European Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(3), pages 89-111, May.
    4. Athias, Laure & Wicht, Pascal, 2025. "Make or buy for public services: Culture matters for efficiency considerations," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    5. Santos, José Eusébio & Andini, Corrado, 2024. "Net privatisation prices in Brazil," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    6. Jonathan Levin & Steven Tadelis, 2010. "Contracting For Government Services: Theory And Evidence From U.S. Cities," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(3), pages 507-541, September.
    7. Germa Bel & Anton Costas, 2006. "Do Public Sector Reforms Get Rusty? Local Privatization in Spain," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(1), pages 1-24.
    8. Jan Hagemejer & Joanna Tyrowicz, 2021. "Structural change and misallocation: Firm‐level evidence from Poland," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(1), pages 95-122, January.
    9. Glaeser, Edward L., 2022. "What can developing cities today learn from the urban past?," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    10. Juri Demuth & Hans W. Friederiszick & Steffen Reinhold, 2022. "Reverse Privatization as a Reaction to the Competitive Environment: Evidence from Solid Waste Collection in Germany," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 60(2), pages 217-261, March.
    11. repec:eee:labchp:v:3:y:1999:i:pc:p:3573-3630 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Grout, Paul A. & Zalewska, Anna, 2006. "The impact of regulation on market risk," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(1), pages 149-184, April.
    13. Mark D. Brenner, 2004. "The Economic Impact of Living Wage Ordinances," Working Papers wp80, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
    14. Shleifer, Andrei, 1997. "Government in transition," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 41(3-5), pages 385-410, April.
    15. Antonio Miralles, 2005. "Auction theory, sequential local service privatization, and the effects of geographical scale economies on effective competition," Working Papers in Economics 132, Universitat de Barcelona. Espai de Recerca en Economia.
    16. Masami Imai, 2009. "Ideologies, vested interest groups, and postal saving privatization in Japan," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 138(1), pages 137-160, January.
    17. Iannotta, Giuliano & Nocera, Giacomo & Sironi, Andrea, 2013. "The impact of government ownership on bank risk," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 152-176.
    18. Enlinson Mattos & Vitor França, 2011. "Public employment and income redistribution: causal evidence for Brazilian municipalities," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 146(1), pages 43-73, January.
    19. Bertacchini, Enrico & Dalle Nogare, Chiara, 2014. "Public provision vs. outsourcing of cultural services: Evidence from Italian cities," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 168-182.
    20. Randall Morck, 2009. "The Riddle of the Great Pyramids," NBER Working Papers 14858, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    21. Xavier Fageda & Germa Bel, 2008. "Local privatization, intermunicipal cooperation,transaction costs and political interests: Evidence from Spain," IREA Working Papers 200804, University of Barcelona, Research Institute of Applied Economics, revised Apr 2008.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:wly:jpamgt:v:23:y:2004:i:3:p:489-507. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/34787/home .

    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.