IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ifowps/_249.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

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

Author

Listed:
  • Carolin Fritzsche

Abstract

This study analyzes the efficiency of the road provision of the local governments of eastern German counties using data envelopment analysis. The provision of roads is a costly public service, which makes an efficiency analysis in this field an interesting subject. I enhance the previous literature by first, examining the differences in the efficiency of eastern German counties; I consider the age of the foundations of roads, which previous studies have not considered due to data limitations. Second, I use a unique dataset on road quality for my efficiency analysis and show that efficiency levels differ from studies that apply proxies, such as the number of accidents, to analyze the quality of roads. These findings indicate there is a great need to develop suitable proxy variables to describe government services. Additional, I show that the correlations between efficiency levels and county characteristics vary greatly depending on the quality indicator used.

Suggested Citation

  • Carolin Fritzsche, 2018. "Analyzing the Efficiency of County Road Provision – Evidence from Eastern German Counties," ifo Working Paper Series 249, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ifowps:_249
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.ifo.de/DocDL/wp-2018-249-fritzsche-infrastructure-efficiency.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kim Woodbury & Brian Dollery, 2004. "Efficiency Measurement in Australian Local Government: The Case of New South Wales Municipal Water Services," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 21(5), pages 615-636, September.
    2. Kraus, Marvin, 1981. "Scale economies analysis for urban highway networks," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 1-22, January.
    3. Pierre Pestieau, 2009. "Assessing The Performance Of The Public Sector," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 80(1), pages 133-161, March.
    4. Fried, Harold O. & Lovell, C. A. Knox & Schmidt, Shelton S. (ed.), 2008. "The Measurement of Productive Efficiency and Productivity Growth," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195183528, Decembrie.
    5. De Borger, Bruno & Kerstens, Kristiaan, 1996. "Cost efficiency of Belgian local governments: A comparative analysis of FDH, DEA, and econometric approaches," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 145-170, April.
    6. Charnes, A. & Cooper, W. W. & Rhodes, E., 1978. "Measuring the efficiency of decision making units," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 2(6), pages 429-444, November.
    7. Balaguer-Coll, Maria Teresa & Prior, Diego & Tortosa-Ausina, Emili, 2007. "On the determinants of local government performance: A two-stage nonparametric approach," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(2), pages 425-451, February.
    8. Werner W. Pommerehne & Bruno S. Frey, 1976. "Two Approaches To Estimating Public Expenditures," Public Finance Review, , vol. 4(4), pages 395-407, October.
    9. Anna Montén & Christian Thater, 2011. "Determinants of Efficiency in Child-Care Provision," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 67(4), pages 378-403, December.
    10. Philip Andrew Stevens, 2005. "Assessing the Performance of Local Government," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 193(1), pages 90-101, July.
    11. Pommerehne, Werner W., 1978. "Institutional approaches to public expenditure : Empirical evidence from Swiss municipalities," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 255-280, April.
    12. Alexander Eck & Carolin Fritzsche & Jan Kluge & Joachim Ragnitz & Felix Rösel, 2015. "Fiscal Capacity and Determining Structural Characteristics of the Eastern German Laender," ifo Dresden Studien, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 76, September.
    13. Meeusen, Wim & van den Broeck, Julien, 1977. "Efficiency Estimation from Cobb-Douglas Production Functions with Composed Error," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 18(2), pages 435-444, June.
    14. Valdmanis, Vivian, 1992. "Sensitivity analysis for DEA models : An empirical example using public vs. NFP hospitals," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 185-205, July.
    15. Kristof De Witte & Mika Kortelainen, 2013. "What explains the performance of students in a heterogeneous environment? Conditional efficiency estimation with continuous and discrete environmental variables," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(17), pages 2401-2412, June.
    16. Steven C. Deller & John M. Halstead, 1994. "Efficiency in the Production of Rural Road Services: The Case of New England Towns," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 70(2), pages 247-259.
    17. Battese, George E. & Corra, Greg S., 1977. "Estimation Of A Production Frontier Model: With Application To The Pastoral Zone Of Eastern Australia," Australian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 21(3), pages 1-11, December.
    18. Steven C. Deller & Carl H. Nelson, 1991. "Measuring the Economic Efficiency of Producing Rural Road Services," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 73(1), pages 194-201.
    19. Alexander Kalb, 2014. "What Determines Local Governments' Cost-efficiency? The Case of Road Maintenance," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(9), pages 1483-1498, September.
    20. McGreer Edward & McMillan Melville L., 1993. "Public Output Demands from Alternative Congestion Functions," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 95-114, January.
    21. Borcherding, Thomas E & Deacon, Robert T, 1972. "The Demand for the Services of Non-Federal Governments," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 62(5), pages 891-901, December.
    22. Komar, Walter, 2000. "Ostdeutsche Verkehrsinfrastruktur: Weiterhin hoher Investitionsbedarf," Wirtschaft im Wandel, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH), vol. 6(5), pages 130-137.
    23. Rexford E. Santerre, 1985. "Spatial Differences in the Demands for Local Public Goods," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 62(2), pages 119-128.
    24. Joaquin Maudos & Jose Pastor & Francisco Perez, 2002. "Competition and efficiency in the Spanish banking sector: the importance of specialization," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(7), pages 505-516.
    25. George E. Battese & Greg S. Corra, 1977. "Estimation Of A Production Frontier Model: With Application To The Pastoral Zone Of Eastern Australia," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 21(3), pages 169-179, December.
    26. R. D. Banker & A. Charnes & W. W. Cooper, 1984. "Some Models for Estimating Technical and Scale Inefficiencies in Data Envelopment Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(9), pages 1078-1092, September.
    27. Aigner, Dennis & Lovell, C. A. Knox & Schmidt, Peter, 1977. "Formulation and estimation of stochastic frontier production function models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 21-37, July.
    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. Florian Dorn & Stefanie Gaebler & Felix Roesel, 2021. "Ineffective fiscal rules? The effect of public sector accounting standards on budgets, efficiency, and accountability," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 186(3), pages 387-412, March.
    2. Florian Dorn, 2021. "Elections and Government Efficiency," ifo Working Paper Series 363, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.

    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. Alexander Kalb, 2014. "What Determines Local Governments' Cost-efficiency? The Case of Road Maintenance," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(9), pages 1483-1498, September.
    2. Villani, Salvatore, 2010. "Elementi ai fini della definizione della nozione di costo standard: una rassegna della letteratura e delle principali esperienze estere [Basic elements defining the standard cost concept. A survey ," MPRA Paper 29683, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Villani, Salvatore, 2010. "Per un giusto equilibrio tra efficacia ed efficienza nell’attuazione della legge delega sul federalismo fiscale: verso la definizione dei LEP e dei costi standard delle Regioni," MPRA Paper 29513, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Kalb, Alexander, 2009. "What determines local governments' technical efficiency? The case of road maintenance," ZEW Discussion Papers 09-047, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    5. Kristof De Witte & Laura López-Torres, 2017. "Efficiency in education: a review of literature and a way forward," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 68(4), pages 339-363, April.
    6. Léopold Simar & Paul W. Wilson, 2015. "Statistical Approaches for Non-parametric Frontier Models: A Guided Tour," International Statistical Review, International Statistical Institute, vol. 83(1), pages 77-110, April.
    7. Isabel Narbón-Perpiñá & Kristof De Witte, 2016. "Local governments’ efficiency: A systematic literature review – Part II," Working Papers 2016/21, Economics Department, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón (Spain).
    8. Bönisch, Peter & Haug, Peter & Illy, Annette & Schreier, Lukas, 2011. "Municipality Size and Efficiency of Local Public Services: Does Size Matter?," IWH Discussion Papers 18/2011, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).
    9. Isabel Narbón-Perpiñá & Maria Teresa Balaguer-Coll & Marko Petrović & Emili Tortosa-Ausina, 2020. "Which estimator to measure local governments’ cost efficiency? The case of Spanish municipalities," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 11(1), pages 51-82, March.
    10. Vittadini, Giorgio & Sturaro, Caterina & Folloni, Giuseppe, 2022. "Non-Cognitive Skills and Cognitive Skills to measure school efficiency," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    11. David Mayston, 2015. "Analysing the effectiveness of public service producers with endogenous resourcing," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 44(1), pages 115-126, August.
    12. Massimo Del Gatto & Adriana Di Liberto & Carmelo Petraglia, 2011. "Measuring Productivity," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(5), pages 952-1008, December.
    13. Seog-Chan Oh & Alfred J. Hildreth, 2014. "Estimating the Technical Improvement of Energy Efficiency in the Automotive Industry—Stochastic and Deterministic Frontier Benchmarking Approaches," Energies, MDPI, vol. 7(9), pages 1-27, September.
    14. Blazek, David & Sickles, Robin C., 2010. "The impact of knowledge accumulation and geographical spillovers on productivity and efficiency: The case of U. S. shipbuilding during WWII," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 1484-1497, November.
    15. Anna Montén & Christian Thater, 2011. "Determinants of Efficiency in Child-Care Provision," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 67(4), pages 378-403, December.
    16. Luis R. Murillo‐Zamorano, 2004. "Economic Efficiency and Frontier Techniques," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(1), pages 33-77, February.
    17. Sickles, Robin C. & Hao, Jiaqi & Shang, Chenjun, 2015. "Panel Data and Productivity Measurement," Working Papers 15-018, Rice University, Department of Economics.
    18. Thi Lam Bui & Huu Cuong Tran & Hossein Azadi & Philippe Lebailly, 2018. "Improving the Technical Efficiency of Sengcu Rice Producers through Better Financial Management and Sustainable Farming Practices in Mountainous Areas of Vietnam," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-19, July.
    19. Dan Luo & Shujie Yao & Jian Chen & Jianling Wang, 2011. "World Financial Crisis and Efficiency of Chinese Commercial Banks," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34, pages 805-825, May.
    20. Jill Johnes & Maria Portela & Emmanuel Thanassoulis, 2017. "Efficiency in education," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 68(4), pages 331-338, April.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods
    • H72 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Budget and Expenditures
    • R51 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Regional Government Analysis - - - Finance in Urban and Rural Economies

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ces:ifowps:_249. 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: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ifooode.html .

    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.