The Effects of Administrative Professionals on Contracting Out

Abstract

An often-debated subject in the public administration literature concerns why some units contract out more than others. The present article decomposes the influence of public employees on municipal contracting as different types of employees have different skills and incentives and must be treated accordingly. First, the analysis shows that the apparent negative relationship between public employees in general and municipal contracting is partly reflecting the fact that the number of public employees is endogenous to contracting. Second, we suggest that administrative professionals and not bureaucrats in general have a positive impact on contracting. This is because administrative professional skills are vital for carrying out a tender and because contracting is essentially a part of administrative professionals' bureau-shaping interests. Finally, we find support for two often-discussed claims in the literature, namely, the influence of prosperity and ideology.

Is public procurement efficiency conditioned by market types? A critical test in park and road sectors in Sweden

“…The positive effects of population size have been frequently reported (Houlberg and Dahl, 2010;Kjaer Foged, 2016;Sundell and Lapuente, 2012), whereas no, or mixed results have been found by other scholars (Bel and Fageda, 2009;Bhatti, Olsen and Pedersen, 2009). This argument relates to earlier Danish research discussions on municipal economies of scale, the technical and administrative competencies of small municipalities, and the availability of private contractors.…”

Political Preferences and Public Sector Outsourcing

“…Studies that report that political preferences are unrelated to outsourcing include Christoffersen and Paldam (2003), Dijkgraaf et al (2003), McGuire et al (1987), and Zullo (2009); they incorporate various services in Denmark, the Netherlands, and the United States. On the other hand, Bhatti et al (2009) report that Danish municipalities with a conservative or liberal majority rely more on outsourcing than municipalities with a left majority. Merzyn and Ursprung (2005) study voting behavior and find that both income and ideology determine the support for education vouchers and subsidies to private schools in Switzerland.…”

Public–private partnerships, management capacity and public service efficiency

“…In fact, there is much reason to suspect that such relationships lead to deteriorations in the quality and efficiency of public services (see, for example, Davies, 2010). The varied results reported in the literature may in part be explained by the fact that the gains promised by public-private partnerships could be contingent upon the management capacity of the contracting public agency; public-private partnerships need to be managed if they are to be successful (O'Toole and Meier, 2004;Bhatti, Olsen and Pedersen, 2009). This paper asks two questions: first, whether a commitment to publicprivate partnership is associated with gains in efficiency; and second whether these gains are contingent on the management capacity of the client agency?…”