Privatization of Municipal Services in America's Largest Cities

Market-type Mechanisms and the Provision of Public Services

“…The report found a 25% improvement in service on average. The shift to a competitive environment also resulted in savings of up to 60% (Dilger et al, 1997). A study of over 2 000 outsourcing initiatives in the United States federal government found an average cost savings of 33% with same or higher levels of service (Clark et al, 2001).…”

Perceptions of Civil Servants Toward Privatization and Development: A New Exploratory Study

“…Supporting their argument, for example, a study of city officers by Dilger et al (1997) is cited to indicate that privatization improves service delivery in most instances. Their study found that the average improvement by privatization was 24.2% in the public works/ transportation service category, 27.6% in public safety, 24.6% in health and human services, 25.7% in parks and recreation, and 27.7% in support functions.…”

“…Proponents of privatization hold that the private sector is more efficient and productive than the public sector and private sector employees are better performers than public sector employees (Liou 2001;Meriam 1994). They also contend that privatization can help improve service delivery, reduce service cost (Dilger et al 1997;Eggers 1993;Savas 1987) and promote economic stability (Shin 1990). Levac and Wooldridge (1997) and Bishop et al (1994) also emphasize that privatization of public sectors helps improve accountability and promote transparency in the public sector.…”

Antecedents of Contracting-Back-In

“…Some implicit goals such as isomorphism (i.e., imitating other organizations which have similar functions to maintain legitimacy) and down-sizing government should not be omitted (Dilger et al, 1997;Hodge, 2000). Both the explicit and implicit noneconomic goals are associated with possible contracting failure and contracting-back-in.…”