Publication Date:
2013-08-31
Description:
This article evaluates German local governments' cost efficiency using a sample of 1,021 municipalities in the state of Baden-Württemberg for the year 2001. We thereby concentrate on overall or 'global' efficiency scores—rather than estimate efficiency for one particular service—and explicitly account for exogenous or non-discretionary influences. The latter not only corrects for influences possibly beyond the control of local policy-makers, but also allows some indication of the determinants of such 'global' efficiency. Our results indicate that there is a substantial divergence in efficiency across municipalities despite a homogeneous institutional setting. As especially smaller municipalities appear less efficient, these results support a case for policy programmes aimed at boundary reviews or more extensive inter-communal cooperation among small municipalities.
Print ISSN:
0034-0111
Electronic ISSN:
1869-4179
Topics:
Architecture, Civil Engineering, Surveying
,
Geography
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