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Bureaucracy and the divisibility of local public output

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  • Rodolfo Gonzalez
  • Stephen Mehay

Abstract

The empirical results of this paper are derived from a monopoly view of local government decisionmaking in contrast to the competitive view offered by earlier researchers. That our results are similar to earlier findings lends additional support to the conclusion that local output is largely private in nature. Other than park and recreation services, there appear to be no economies in consumption for local services, nor any economies of density. Larger cities do not appear to be more efficient than smaller cities. 10 Of course, this result holds only for the sample of cities used here and does not rule out scale economies for communities smaller than those in our sample (i.e., below 25,000 population). The pure public goods case is frequently cited as a justification for the provision of many services by local government, and for increasing the size and reducing the number of local jurisdictions. Therefore, it is noteworthy that empirical tests derived from models that have employed differing assumptions about the monopoly power of local government have found little evidence to support these arguments for consolidating local government. Copyright Martinus Nijhoff Publishers 1985

Suggested Citation

  • Rodolfo Gonzalez & Stephen Mehay, 1985. "Bureaucracy and the divisibility of local public output," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 89-101, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:pubcho:v:45:y:1985:i:1:p:89-101
    DOI: 10.1007/BF00163589
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Charles M. Tiebout, 1956. "A Pure Theory of Local Expenditures," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 64(5), pages 416-416.
    2. Borcherding, Thomas E & Deacon, Robert T, 1972. "The Demand for the Services of Non-Federal Governments," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 62(5), pages 891-901, December.
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    5. Rogers Ahlbrandt, 1973. "Efficiency in the provision of fire services," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 1-15, September.
    6. Romer, Thomas & Rosenthal, Howard, 1979. "The elusive median voter," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 143-170, October.
    7. Brennan,Geoffrey & Buchanan,James M., 2006. "The Power to Tax," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521027922, January.
    8. Niskanen, William A, 1975. "Bureaucrats and Politicians," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 18(3), pages 617-643, December.
    9. Gramlich, Edward M & Rubinfeld, Daniel L, 1982. "Micro Estimates of Public Spending Demand Functions and Tests of the Tiebout and Median-Voter Hypotheses," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 90(3), pages 536-560, June.
    10. Ott, Mack, 1980. "Bureaucracy, monopoly, and the demand for municipal services," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 362-382, November.
    11. Lovell, Michael C, 1978. "Spending for Education: The Exercise of Public Choice," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 60(4), pages 487-495, November.
    12. Pommerehne, Werner W., 1978. "Institutional approaches to public expenditure : Empirical evidence from Swiss municipalities," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 255-280, April.
    13. Robert Inman, 1978. "Testing political economy’s ‘as if’ proposition: is the median income voter really decisive?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 33(4), pages 45-65, December.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Stephen Mehay & Kenneth Seiden, 1986. "Municipal residency laws and local public budgets," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 48(1), pages 27-35, January.
    2. Rodolfo Gonzalez & Roger Folsom & Stephen Mehay, 1989. "Bureaucracy, publicness and local government expenditures revisited: Comment," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 62(1), pages 71-77, July.
    3. Gary Giroux, 1989. "Monopoly power and monitoring: A test using the Gonzalez and Mehay model," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 63(1), pages 73-78, October.
    4. Rodolfo Gonzalez & Stephen Mehay, 1987. "Municipal annexation and local monopoly power," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 52(3), pages 245-255, January.
    5. Paul Wyckoff, 1989. "Bureaucracy and the ‘publicness’ of local public goods: A reply to Gonzalez, Folsom and Mehay," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 62(1), pages 79-82, July.
    6. Rodolfo A. Gonzalez & Stephen L. Mehay, 1990. "Publicness, Scale, and Spillover Effects in Defense Spending," Public Finance Review, , vol. 18(3), pages 273-290, July.
    7. Paul Wyckoff, 1988. "Bureaucracy and the ‘publicness’ of local public goods," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 56(3), pages 271-284, March.
    8. Chris Fawson & Gary Giroux, 1988. "An empirical extension of the municipal monopoly model to provision of community infrastructure," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 57(1), pages 79-83, April.
    9. Kevin T. Duffy-Deno & Douglas R. Dalenberg, 1993. "The Municipal Wage and Employment Effects of Public Infrastructure," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 30(9), pages 1577-1589, November.
    10. Stephen L. Mehay & Rodolfo A. Gonzalez, 1987. "Outside Information and the Monopoly Power of a Public Bureau: An Empirical Analysis," Public Finance Review, , vol. 15(1), pages 61-75, January.
    11. N. Vasudeva Murthy, 1987. "Bureaucracy and the divisibility of local public output: Further econometric evidence," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 55(3), pages 265-272, October.
    12. Kevin M. O'Brien, 1997. "Do Municipal Residency Laws Affect Labour Market Outcomes?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 34(11), pages 1759-1769, November.

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