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Outsourcing Public Services: Ownership, Competition, Quality and Contracting

Author

Listed:
  • Andersson, Fredrik

    (Lund University)

  • Jordahl, Henrik

    (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN))

Abstract
We survey the literature on the effects of public sector outsourcing. Guided by theory, we systematically arrange services according to the type and magnitude of their contractibility problems. Taken as a whole, the empirical literature indicates that public sector outsourcing generally reduces costs without hurting quality. This is clearly the case for “perfectly contractible services” like garbage collection, but outsourcing often seems to work reasonably well also for some services with more difficult contracting problems, e.g. fire protection and prisons. Outsourcing seems to be more problematic for credence goods, with residential youth care as the prime example. In contrast to previous reviews, we conclude that ownership and competition appear to be about equally important for the consequences of public sector outsourcing.

Suggested Citation

  • Andersson, Fredrik & Jordahl, Henrik, 2011. "Outsourcing Public Services: Ownership, Competition, Quality and Contracting," Working Paper Series 874, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:0874
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    Cited by:

    1. Elinder, Mikael & Jordahl, Henrik, 2013. "Political preferences and public sector outsourcing," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 43-57.
    2. MacDonald, Peter, 2013. "Labour substitution and the scope for military outsourcing," MPRA Paper 46688, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Panu Poutvaara & Henrik Jordahl, 2020. "Public sector outsourcing," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 1-65, November.
    4. Cockx, Bart & Baert, Stijn, 2015. "Contracting Out Mandatory Counselling and Training for Long-Term Unemployed: Private For-Profit or Non-Profit, or Keep It Public?," IZA Discussion Papers 9459, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Laun, Lisa & Thoursie, Peter Skogman, 2014. "Does privatisation of vocational rehabilitation improve labour market opportunities? Evidence from a field experiment in Sweden," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 59-72.
    6. Peter Birch Sørensen, 2015. "Reforming Public Service Provision: What have we learned?," EPRU Working Paper Series 2015-01, Economic Policy Research Unit (EPRU), University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics.
    7. Elert, Niklas & Henrekson, Magnus & Stenkula, Mikael, 2017. "Institutional Reform for Innovation and Entrepreneurship: An Agenda for Europe," Working Paper Series 1150, Research Institute of Industrial Economics, revised 16 Feb 2017.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Outsourcing; Contracts; Tendering; Ownership; Competition; Quality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights
    • H11 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Structure and Scope of Government
    • L33 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - Comparison of Public and Private Enterprise and Nonprofit Institutions; Privatization; Contracting Out

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