IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/gra/fegper/08-02.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Is the time dimension really important in research into contracting out?

Author

Listed:
  • Jorge Guardiola

    (Universidad de Granada. Deparment of Applied Economics)

  • Francisco González-Gómez

    (Universidad de Granada. Deparment of Applied Economics)

  • Miguel A. García-Rubio

    (Universidad de Granada. Deparment of Applied Economics)

Abstract

In a recent study into the literature, Bel and Fageda (2007) highlighted the lack of the time dimension in research dealing with explanatory factors in the decision to contract out municipal services. In this paper we attempt to evaluate if the argument of Bel and Fageda is true. We do this by means of two methodological contrasts in the designing of variables from a dataset containing 744 municipalities in Southern Spain. From our empirical analysis, we conclude that the consideration of the time dimension does contribute to a better specification of the model, and not considering it could lead to a misunderstanding of the motivation behind the decision.

Suggested Citation

  • Jorge Guardiola & Francisco González-Gómez & Miguel A. García-Rubio, 2008. "Is the time dimension really important in research into contracting out?," FEG Working Paper Series 08/02, Faculty of Economics and Business (University of Granada).
    • Handle: RePEc:gra:fegper:08/02
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.ugr.es/~teoriahe/RePEc/gra/fegper/FEGWP208.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yolanda Kodrzycki, 1998. "Fiscal pressures and the privatization of local services," New England Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, issue Jan, pages 39-50.
    2. Claude Ménard & Stéphane Saussier, 2000. "Contractual Choice and Performance the Case of Water Supply in France," Revue d'Économie Industrielle, Programme National Persée, vol. 92(1), pages 385-404.
    3. Germà Bel & Mildred Warner, 2008. "Challenging Issues in Local Privatization," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 26(1), pages 104-109, February.
    4. Henry Ohlsson, 2003. "Ownership and Production Costs: Choosing between Public Production and Contracting-Out in the Case of Swedish Refuse Collection," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 24(4), pages 451-476, December.
    5. Arnaud Reynaud & Serge Garcia & Michel Moreaux, 2004. "Measuring Economies of Vertical Integration in Network," Econometric Society 2004 North American Summer Meetings 184, Econometric Society.
    6. Cameron,A. Colin & Trivedi,Pravin K., 2005. "Microeconometrics," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521848053.
    7. Paul H. Jensen & Robin E. Stonecash, 2005. "Incentives and the Efficiency of Public Sector‐outsourcing Contracts," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(5), pages 767-787, December.
    8. Karen Bakker, 2002. "From State to Market?: Water Mercantilización in Spain," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 34(5), pages 767-790, May.
    9. Germà Bel & Antonio Miralles, 2003. "Factors Influencing the Privatisation of Urban Solid Waste Collection in Spain," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 40(7), pages 1323-1334, June.
    10. Mildred Warner & Robert Hebdon, 2001. "Local Government Restructuring: Privatization and Its Alternatives," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(2), pages 315-336.
    11. Domberger, Simon & Jensen, Paul, 1997. "Contracting Out by the Public Sector: Theory, Evidence, Prospects," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 13(4), pages 67-78, Winter.
    12. Massimo Filippini & Nevenka Hrovatin & Jelena Zorić, 2008. "Cost efficiency of Slovenian water distribution utilities: an application of stochastic frontier methods," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 169-182, April.
    13. Euijune Kim & Hyun Lee, 1998. "Spatial Integration Of Urban Water Services And Economies Of Scale," Review of Urban & Regional Development Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(1), pages 3-18, March.
    14. Torres, Marcelo & Morrison Paul, Catherine J., 2006. "Driving forces for consolidation or fragmentation of the US water utility industry: A cost function approach with endogenous output," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 104-120, January.
    15. Garcia, Serge & Moreaux, Michel & Reynaud, Arnaud, 2007. "Measuring economies of vertical integration in network industries: An application to the water sector," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 791-820, August.
    16. John K. Ashton, 2003. "Capital Utilisation and Scale in the English and Welsh Water Industry," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(5), pages 137-149, November.
    17. Roberto Martínez-Espiñeira & Maria A. García-Valiñas & Francisco González-Gómez, 2009. "Does Private Management of Water Supply Services Really Increase Prices? An Empirical Analysis in Spain," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 46(4), pages 923-945, April.
    18. E. Dijkgraaf & R. H. J. M. Gradus & B. Melenberg, 2003. "Contracting out refuse collection," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 553-570, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Germà Bel & Xavier Fageda, 2009. "Factors explaining local privatization: a meta-regression analysis," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 139(1), pages 105-119, April.
    2. 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.
    3. Germà Bel & Xavier Fageda & Melania Mur, 2010. "¿Por qué se privatizan servicios en los municipios (pequeños)? Evidencia empírica sobre residuos sólidos y agua," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 192(1), pages 33-58, March.
    4. Andrea Guerrini & Giulia Romano & Bettina Campedelli, 2013. "Economies of Scale, Scope, and Density in the Italian Water Sector: A Two-Stage Data Envelopment Analysis Approach," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 27(13), pages 4559-4578, October.
    5. Thomas C. Kinnaman & Kenji Takeuchi (ed.), 2014. "Handbook on Waste Management," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 14571.
    6. 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.
    7. 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.
    8. Michael Zschille, 2012. "Consolidating the Water Industry: An Analysis of the Potential Gains from Horizontal Integration in a Conditional Efficiency Framework," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1187, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    9. Saal David S. & Arocena Pablo & Maziotis Alexandros & Triebs Thomas, 2013. "Scale and Scope Economies and the Efficient Vertical and Horizontal Configuration of the Water Industry: A Survey of the Literature," Review of Network Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 93-129, March.
    10. Graziano Abrate & Fabrizio Erbetta & Giovanni Fraquelli & Davide Vannoni, 2012. "Size and Density Economies in Refuse Collection," Carlo Alberto Notebooks 274, Collegio Carlo Alberto.
    11. Germà Bel & Xavier Fageda & Melania Mur, 2011. "Privatization, cooperation and costs of solid waste services in small towns," IREA Working Papers 201111, University of Barcelona, Research Institute of Applied Economics, revised Jul 2011.
    12. Picazo-Tadeo, Andrés J. & Sáez-Fernández, Francisco J. & González-Gómez, Francisco, 2008. "Assesing Performance in the Management of the Urban Water Cycle," Efficiency Series Papers 2008/01, University of Oviedo, Department of Economics, Oviedo Efficiency Group (OEG).
    13. Abbott, Malcolm & Cohen, Bruce, 2009. "Productivity and efficiency in the water industry," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 17(3-4), pages 233-244, September.
    14. E. Dijkgraaf & R.H.J.M. Gradus, 2008. "How to Get Increasing Competition in the Dutch Refuse Collection Market?," Springer Books, in: E. Dijkgraaf & R.H.J.M. Gradus (ed.), The Waste Market, chapter 0, pages 101-109, Springer.
    15. Andersson, Fredrik & Jordahl, Henrik, 2011. "Outsourcing Public Services: Ownership, Competition, Quality and Contracting," Working Paper Series 874, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    16. Carvalho, Pedro & Marques, Rui Cunha & Berg, Sanford, 2012. "A meta-regression analysis of benchmarking studies on water utilities market structure," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 40-49.
    17. Anders Sundell & Victor Lapuente, 2012. "Adam Smith or Machiavelli? Political incentives for contracting out local public services," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 153(3), pages 469-485, December.
    18. Juan Carlos Garrido-Rodríguez & Gemma Pérez-López & José Luis Zafra-Gómez & Diego Prior, 2018. "Estimación de la eficiencia a largo plazo en servicios públicos locales mediante fronteras robustas con datos de panel," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 226(3), pages 11-36, September.
    19. 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.
    20. Suho Bae, 2010. "Public Versus Private Delivery Of Municipal Solid Waste Services: The Case Of North Carolina," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 28(3), pages 414-428, July.

    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:gra:fegper:08/02. 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: Juliette Milgram Baleix. (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dtugres.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.