Municipality Size and Efficiency of Local Public Services: Does Size Matter?

Arbeitspapier

Similarly to West Germany in the 1960s and 1970s, the eastern part of Germany has experienced a still ongoing process of numerous amalgamations among counties, towns and municipalities since the mid-1990s. The evidence in the economic literature is mixed with regard to the claimed expenditure reductions and efficiency gains from municipal mergers. We therefore analyze the global efficiency of the municipalities in Saxony-Anhalt, for the first time in this context, using a double-bootstrap procedure combining Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and truncated regression. This allows including environmental variables to control for exogenous determinants of municipal efficiency. Our focus thereby is on institutional and fiscal variables. Moreover, the scale efficiency is estimated to find out whether large units are necessary to benefit from scale economies. In contrast to previous studies, we chose the aggregate budget of municipal associations ('Verwaltungsgemeinschaften') as the object of our analysis since important competences of the member municipalities are settled on a joint administrative level. Furthermore, we use a data set that has been carefully adjusted for bookkeeping items and transfers within the communal level. On the 'eve' of a mayor municipal reform, the majority of the municipalities was found to have an approximately scaleefficient size, and centralized organizational forms ('Einheitsgemeinden') showed no efficiency advantage over municipal associations.

Angaben zum Objekt

• Sprache: Englisch

Verweise und Beziehungen

• Erschienen in: Series: IWH Discussion Papers ; No. 18/2011

Klassifikation und Themen

• Klassifikation: Wirtschaft ; Structure, Scope, and Performance of Government ; State and Local Budget and Expenditures
• Thema: efficiency ; local government ; DEA ; bootstrap ; demographic change ; local institutions ; Effizienz ; Kommunen ; DEA ; Bootstrap-Verfahren ; demographischer Wandel ; Verwaltungsform ; Gemeinde ; Wirtschaftliche Effizienz ; Data-Envelopment-Analyse ; Zweckverband ; Gebietsreform ; Neue Bundesländer

Beteiligte, Orts- und Zeitangaben

• Ereignis: Geistige Schöpfung
• (wer): Bönisch, Peter ; Haug, Peter ; Illy, Annette ; Schreier, Lukas
• Ereignis: Veröffentlichung
• (wer): Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung Halle (IWH)
• (wo): Halle (Saale)
• (wann): 2011

Weitere Informationen

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/55284
• URN: urn:nbn:de:101:1-201112215432
• Letzte Aktualisierung: 10.03.2025, 11:42 MEZ