IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/epplan/v85y2021ics0149718920302081.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Measurement and determinants of efficiency in the municipal police service

Author

Listed:
  • Benito, Bernardino
  • Martínez-Córdoba, Pedro-José
  • Guillamón, María-Dolores

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the efficiency of the police service in Spanish municipalities with a population of more than 50,000 inhabitants. Using Data Envelopment Analysis, we obtain the efficiency levels and the targets that the input and outputs have to reach to be efficient in the provision of the police service. Next, and based on the literature, the effect of the following environmental variables is verified: young population, number of foreigners, unemployment, municipal per capita income, tourist level of the municipality, and ideology and political strength of the municipal government. Findings show that an increase in the number of young people in the municipality means an improved efficiency in the local police service. In contrast, cultural diversity (measured by the percentage of foreigners in the total population), unemployment, the mayor's ideology and political fragmentation of government do not have a significant effect on the level of efficiency. On the other hand, higher municipal per capita income means less efficiency, while an increase in tourism activity is related to the improvement of this.

Suggested Citation

  • Benito, Bernardino & Martínez-Córdoba, Pedro-José & Guillamón, María-Dolores, 2021. "Measurement and determinants of efficiency in the municipal police service," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:epplan:v:85:y:2021:i:c:s0149718920302081
    DOI: 10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2020.101904
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149718920302081
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2020.101904?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Geys, Benny & Heinemann, Friedrich & Kalb, Alexander, 2010. "Voter involvement, fiscal autonomy and public sector efficiency: Evidence from German municipalities," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 265-278, June.
    2. M. Teresa Balaguer-Coll & Diego Prior, 2009. "Short- and long-term evaluation of efficiency and quality. An application to Spanish municipalities," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(23), pages 2991-3002.
    3. Simar, Léopold & Vanhems, Anne & Van Keilegom, Ingrid, 2016. "Unobserved heterogeneity and endogeneity in nonparametric frontier estimation," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 190(2), pages 360-373.
    4. Verschelde, Marijn & Rogge, Nicky, 2012. "An environment-adjusted evaluation of local police e ectiveness: evidence from a conditional Data Envelopment Analysis approach," Working Papers 2012/09, Hogeschool-Universiteit Brussel, Faculteit Economie en Management.
    5. Cinzia Daraio & Léopold Simar & Paul W. Wilson, 2018. "Central limit theorems for conditional efficiency measures and tests of the ‘separability’ condition in non‐parametric, two‐stage models of production," Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 21(2), pages 170-191, June.
    6. Lars-Erik Borge & Torberg Falch & Per Tovmo, 2008. "Public sector efficiency: the roles of political and budgetary institutions, fiscal capacity, and democratic participation," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 136(3), pages 475-495, September.
    7. Alexander Kalb, 2010. "The Impact of Intergovernmental Grants on Cost Efficiency: Theory and Evidence from German Municipalities," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 21-63, March.
    8. Pedro-José Martínez-Córdoba & Nicola Raimo & Filippo Vitolla & Bernardino Benito, 2020. "Achieving Sustainable Development Goals. Efficiency in the Spanish Clean Water and Sanitation Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-13, April.
    9. Simar, Leopold & Wilson, Paul W., 2002. "Non-parametric tests of returns to scale," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(1), pages 115-132, May.
    10. Wu, Tai-Hsi & Chen, Ming-Shiun & Yeh, Jin-Yii, 2010. "Measuring the performance of police forces in Taiwan using data envelopment analysis," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 246-254, August.
    11. Asatryan, Zareh & De Witte, Kristof, 2015. "Direct democracy and local government efficiency," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 58-66.
    12. Cinzia Daraio & Léopold Simar & Paul W. Wilson, 2018. "Central limit theorems for conditional efficiency measures and tests of the ‘separability’ condition in non‐parametric, two‐stage models of production," Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 21(2), pages 170-191, June.
    13. Gorman, Michael F. & Ruggiero, John, 2008. "Evaluating US state police performance using data envelopment analysis," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(2), pages 1031-1037, June.
    14. Isabel Narbón-Perpiñá & Maria Balaguer-Coll & Emili Tortosa-Ausina, 2019. "Evaluating local government performance in times of crisis," Local Government Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(1), pages 64-100, January.
    15. Vicente Rios & Pedro Pascual & Fermín Cabases, 2017. "What drives local government spending in Spain? A dynamic spatial panel approach," Spatial Economic Analysis, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(2-3), pages 230-250, July.
    16. Pettas, Nikolaos & Giannikos, Ioannis, 2014. "Evaluating the delivery performance of public spending programs from an efficiency perspective," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 140-150.
    17. Jun Yin & Qingmei Tan, 2019. "Study on Urban Efficiency Measurement and Spatiotemporal Evolution of Cities in Northwest China Based on the DEA–Malmquist Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-13, January.
    18. Verschelde, Marijn & Rogge, Nicky, 2012. "An environment-adjusted evaluation of citizen satisfaction with local police effectiveness: Evidence from a conditional Data Envelopment Analysis approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 223(1), pages 214-225.
    19. Victor M. Giménez & Diego Prior, 2007. "Long- and Short-Term Cost Efficiency Frontier Evaluation: Evidence from Spanish Local Governments," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 28(1), pages 121-139, March.
    20. Balaguer-Coll, Maria Teresa & Prior, Diego & Tortosa-Ausina, Emili, 2007. "On the determinants of local government performance: A two-stage nonparametric approach," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(2), pages 425-451, February.
    21. Daraio, Cinzia & Simar, Leopold & Wilson, Paul, 2018. "Central limit theorems for conditional efficiency measures and tests of the ‘separability’ condition in non-parametric, two-stage models of production," LIDAM Reprints ISBA 2018023, Université catholique de Louvain, Institute of Statistics, Biostatistics and Actuarial Sciences (ISBA).
    22. Ignacio Lago-Peñas & Santiago Lago-Peñas, 2009. "Does the nationalization of party systems affect the composition of public spending?," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 85-98, January.
    23. Jose M. Cordero & Francisco Pedraja-Chaparro & Elsa C. Pisaflores & Cristina Polo, 2017. "Efficiency assessment of Portuguese municipalities using a conditional nonparametric approach," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 48(1), pages 1-24, August.
    24. Benito, Bernardino & Guillamón, María-Dolores & Martínez-Córdoba, Pedro-José, 2020. "Determinants of efficiency improvement in the Spanish public lighting sector," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    25. Charnes, A. & Cooper, W. W. & Rhodes, E., 1978. "Measuring the efficiency of decision making units," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 2(6), pages 429-444, November.
    26. Fabio Carlucci & Andrea Cirà & Paolo Coccorese, 2018. "Measuring and Explaining Airport Efficiency and Sustainability: Evidence from Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-17, February.
    27. Maria Teresa Balaguer-Coll & Maria Isabel Brun-Martos & Laura Márquez-Ramos & Diego Prior, 2019. "Local government efficiency: determinants and spatial interdependence," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(14), pages 1478-1494, March.
    28. Cuadrado-Ballesteros, Beatriz & García-Sánchez, Isabel-María & Prado-Lorenzo, José-Manuel, 2013. "Effect of modes of public services delivery on the efficiency of local governments: A two-stage approach," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 23-35.
    29. Afonso, António & Fernandes, Sónia, 2008. "Assessing and explaining the relative efficiency of local government," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 1946-1979, October.
    30. Roger Carrington & Nara Puthucheary & Deirdre Rose & Suthathip Yaisawarng, 1997. "Performance Measurement in Government Service Provision: The Case of Police Services in New South Wales," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 8(4), pages 415-430, November.
    31. Bernardino Benito & Francisco Bastida & Jose Garcia, 2010. "Explaining differences in efficiency: an application to Spanish municipalities," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(4), pages 515-528.
    32. Christian Bruns & Oliver Himmler, 2011. "Newspaper Circulation and Local Government Efficiency," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 113, pages 470-492, June.
    33. Simar, Leopold & Wilson, Paul W., 2007. "Estimation and inference in two-stage, semi-parametric models of production processes," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 136(1), pages 31-64, January.
    34. Jaeho Shin & Changhee Kim & Hongsuk Yang, 2018. "The Effect of Sustainability as Innovation Objectives on Innovation Efficiency," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-13, June.
    35. Drake, Leigh & Simper, R., 2003. "The measurement of English and Welsh police force efficiency: A comparison of distance function models," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 147(1), pages 165-186, May.
    36. H. W. Lampe & D. Hilgers & C. Ihl, 2015. "Does accrual accounting improve municipalities' efficiency? Evidence from Germany," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(41), pages 4349-4363, September.
    37. da Cruz, Nuno Ferreira & Marques, Rui Cunha, 2014. "Revisiting the determinants of local government performance," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 91-103.
    38. Revelli, Federico & Tovmo, Per, 2007. "Revealed yardstick competition: Local government efficiency patterns in Norway," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 121-134, July.
    39. Thanassoulis, Emmanuel, 1995. "Assessing police forces in England and Wales using data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 87(3), pages 641-657, December.
    40. Sun, Shinn, 2002. "Measuring the relative efficiency of police precincts using data envelopment analysis," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 51-71, March.
    41. Leigh Drake & Richard Simper, 2001. "The Economic Evaluation of Policing Activity: An Application of a Hybrid Methodology," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 12(3), pages 173-192, November.
    42. Ishmael Mugari & Emeka E. Obioha, 2018. "Patterns, Costs, and Implications of Police Abuse to Citizens’ Rights in the Republic of Zimbabwe," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 7(7), pages 1-14, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Castillo-Manzano, José I. & Castro-Nuño, Mercedes & Lopez-Valpuesta, Lourdes, 2024. "Planning traffic surveillance in Spain: How to optimize the management of police resources to reduce road fatalities," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Benito, Bernardino & Guillamón, María-Dolores & Martínez-Córdoba, Pedro-José, 2020. "Determinants of efficiency improvement in the Spanish public lighting sector," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    2. Isabel Narbón-Perpiñá & Kristof De Witte, 2016. "Local governments’ efficiency: A systematic literature review – Part I," Working Papers 2016/20, Economics Department, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón (Spain).
    3. Pedro-José Martínez-Córdoba & Nicola Raimo & Filippo Vitolla & Bernardino Benito, 2020. "Achieving Sustainable Development Goals. Efficiency in the Spanish Clean Water and Sanitation Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-13, April.
    4. Isabel Narbón-Perpiñá & Maria Teresa Balaguer-Coll & Diego Prior & Emili Tortosa-Ausina, 2021. "Searching for the optimal territorial structure: the case of Spanish provincial councils," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(4), pages 645-664, April.
    5. Enrique J. Buch‐Gómez & Roberto Cabaleiro‐Casal, 2020. "Turnout, political strength, and cost efficiency in Spanish municipalities of the autonomous region of Galicia: Evidence from an alternative stochastic frontier approach," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 99(3), pages 533-553, June.
    6. Ifigeneia-Dimitra Pougkakioti, 2021. "Measuring The Efficiency And Productivity Change Of Municipalities With An Output Oriented Model:Empirical Evidence Across Greek Municipalities Over The Time Period 2012-2016," Romanian Journal of Regional Science, Romanian Regional Science Association, vol. 15(1), pages 98-125, JUNE.
    7. Maria Teresa Balaguer‐Coll & Isabel Narbón‐Perpiñá & Jesús Peiró‐Palomino & Emili Tortosa‐Ausina, 2022. "Quality of government and economic growth at the municipal level: Evidence from Spain," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(1), pages 96-124, January.
    8. Isabel-María García-Sánchez & Luis Rodríguez-Domínguez & Javier Parra-Domínguez, 2013. "Yearly evolution of police efficiency in Spain and explanatory factors," Central European Journal of Operations Research, Springer;Slovak Society for Operations Research;Hungarian Operational Research Society;Czech Society for Operations Research;Österr. Gesellschaft für Operations Research (ÖGOR);Slovenian Society Informatika - Section for Operational Research;Croatian Operational Research Society, vol. 21(1), pages 31-62, January.
    9. Isabel Narbón-Perpiñá & Maria Teresa Balaguer-Coll & Marko Petrović & Emili Tortosa-Ausina, 2020. "Which estimator to measure local governments’ cost efficiency? The case of Spanish municipalities," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 11(1), pages 51-82, March.
    10. da Cruz, Nuno Ferreira & Marques, Rui Cunha, 2014. "Revisiting the determinants of local government performance," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 91-103.
    11. Cordero, José Manuel & Pedraja-Chaparro, Francisco & Pisaflores, Elsa C. & Polo, Cristina, 2016. "Efficiency assessment of Portuguese municipalities using a conditional nonparametric approach," MPRA Paper 70674, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Cinzia Daraio & Léopold Simar & Paul W. Wilson, 2020. "Fast and efficient computation of directional distance estimators," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 288(2), pages 805-835, May.
    13. Simona Bigerna & Paolo Polinori, 2013. "Quality of Life in Major Italian Cities: Do Local Governments Cost Efficiency Contribute to Improve Urban Life Style? An Introductory Analysis," ECONOMICS AND POLICY OF ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2013(3), pages 121-144.
    14. Surender Kumar & Sudesh Kumar, 2015. "Does modernization improve performance: evidence from Indian police," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 39(1), pages 57-77, February.
    15. Thyago Celso Cavalcante Nepomuceno & Katarina Tatiana Marques Santiago & Cinzia Daraio & Ana Paula Cabral Seixas Costa, 2022. "Exogenous crimes and the assessment of public safety efficiency and effectiveness," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 316(2), pages 1349-1382, September.
    16. Isabel García-Sánchez & Luis Rodríguez-Domínguez & Javier Parra Domínguez, 2013. "Evaluation of the efficacy and effectiveness of the Spanish security forces," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 36(1), pages 57-75, August.
    17. Núria Bosch & Marta Espasa & Toni Mora, 2012. "Citizen Control and the Efficiency of Local Public Services," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 30(2), pages 248-266, April.
    18. lo Storto, Corrado, 2020. "Performance evaluation of social service provision in Italian major municipalities using Network Data Envelopment Analysis," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    19. D'Inverno, Giovanna & Carosi, Laura & Ravagli, Letizia, 2018. "Global public spending efficiency in Tuscan municipalities," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 102-113.
    20. Maria Basílio & Clara Pires & Carlos Borralho & José Pires Reis, 2020. "Local government efficiency: is there anything new after Troika’s intervention in Portugal?," Eurasian Economic Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 10(2), pages 309-332, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:epplan:v:85:y:2021:i:c:s0149718920302081. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/evalprogplan .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.