IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envirc/v28y2010i6p958-977.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Purchaser – Provider Split: Does Theory Match Evidence in Tasmania?

Author

Listed:
  • Abdulai K Mohammed

    (Department of Political Science, University of Ghana, PO Box LG 69, Legon, Accra, Ghana)

Abstract

I examine the purchaser – provider split in the contexts of two local government areas (Hobart and Sorell) in Tasmania, Australia. I assess whether that split has delivered on the promised effects. I also examine the influence that context has on response outcomes to the purchaser – provider arrangement. Specifically, I pay attention to the impact of purchaser – provider reform on service spending, aggregate municipal spending, and total employment. The evidence shows that the use of the purchaser – provider split is viable only for large programme expenditures. The purchaser – provider split is not related to total municipal spending even though it may be negatively related to the programmes that are subject to it. Savings from purchaser – provider reform result in increased spending and therefore employment elsewhere in the local authority. Greater efficiency gains in some jurisdictions are attributable more to particular local favourable contextual conditions than to the purchaser – provider split per se.

Suggested Citation

  • Abdulai K Mohammed, 2010. "Purchaser – Provider Split: Does Theory Match Evidence in Tasmania?," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 28(6), pages 958-977, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirc:v:28:y:2010:i:6:p:958-977
    DOI: 10.1068/c09115
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/c09115
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1068/c09115?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Baumol, William J, 1982. "Contestable Markets: An Uprising in the Theory of Industry Structure," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 72(1), pages 1-15, March.
    2. Robert McGuire & Robert Ohsfeldt & T. Cott, 1987. "The determinants of the choice between public and private production of a publicly funded service," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 54(3), pages 211-230, August.
    3. U.‐G. Gerdtham & M. Löthgren & M. Tambour & C. Rehnberg, 1999. "Internal markets and health care efficiency: a multiple‐output stochastic frontier analysis," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 8(2), pages 151-164, March.
    4. Ferris, James M., 1988. "The Public Spending and Employment Effects of Local Service Contracting," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 41(2), pages 209-17, June.
    5. Carol Propper & Neil Söderlund, 1998. "Competition in the NHS internal market: an overview of its effects on hospital prices and costs," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 7(3), pages 187-197, May.
    6. Ferris, James M., 1988. "The Public Spending and Employment Effects of Local Service Contracting," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 41(2), pages 209-217, June.
    7. Gerring, John, 2004. "What Is a Case Study and What Is It Good for?," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 98(2), pages 341-354, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Oates, Wallace E., 2005. "Property taxation and local public spending: the renter effect," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(3), pages 419-431, May.
    2. Richard Cookson & Diane Dawson, 2012. "Hospital Competition and Patient Choice in Publicly Funded Health Care," Chapters, in: Andrew M. Jones (ed.), The Elgar Companion to Health Economics, Second Edition, chapter 20, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Jessica Weber, 2023. "Coordination Challenges in Wind Energy Development: Lessons from Cross-Case Positive Planning Approaches to Avoid Multi-Level Governance ‘Free-Riding’," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-25, October.
    4. Peter Kuhn, 1982. "Malfeasance in Long Term Employment Contracts: A New General Model with an Application to Unionism," NBER Working Papers 1045, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Deller, Steven C. & Hinds, David G. & Hinman, Donald L., 2001. "Local Public Services In Wisconsin: Alternatives For Municipalities With A Focus On Privatization," Staff Papers 12658, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics.
    6. Dasgupta Utteeyo, 2011. "Are Entry Threats Always Credible?," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 11(1), pages 1-41, December.
    7. Maria Lorek, 2013. "Des pôles de croissance vers des systèmes d’innovation territorialisés dans une « nouvelle » économie de marche : le cas de Gdansk, Pologne [The poles of growth and conversion of industrial territo," Working Papers 274, Laboratoire de Recherche sur l'Industrie et l'Innovation. ULCO / Research Unit on Industry and Innovation.
    8. Shi, Guanming & Stiegert, Kyle & Chavas, Jean Paul, 2010. "An Analysis of Pricing in Horizontal and Vertical Markets: The Case of the Cottonseed Market," Working Papers 201439, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Food System Research Group.
    9. Ghosal, Vivek, 2007. "Small is Beautiful but Size Matters: The Asymmetric Impact of Uncertainty and Sunk Costs on Small and Large Businesses," MPRA Paper 5461, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Boone, Jan, 2004. "Balance of Power," CEPR Discussion Papers 4733, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    11. Ying Li & Yung-Ho Chiu & Tai-Yu Lin & Tzu-Han Chang, 2020. "Pre-Evaluating the Technical Efficiency Gains from Potential Mergers and Acquisitions in the IC Design Industry," International Journal of Information Technology & Decision Making (IJITDM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 19(02), pages 525-559, April.
    12. David Encaoua & Michel Moreaux, 1987. "L'analyse théorique des problèmes de tarification et d'allocation des coûts dans les télécommunications," Revue Économique, Programme National Persée, vol. 38(2), pages 375-414.
    13. Pablo Gottret & George Schieber, 2006. "Health Financing Revisited : A Practitioner's Guide," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 7094, December.
    14. Oh, Dong-hyun, 2015. "Productivity growth, technical change and economies of scale of Korean fossil-fuel generation companies, 2001–2012: A dual approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 113-121.
    15. Usman Bashir & Zaheer Abbas & Muntazir Hussain, 2014. "The Effect of Foreign Bank Presence on Domestic Banks Performance: An Evidence from a Developing Economy," Acta Universitatis Danubius. OEconomica, Danubius University of Galati, issue 2(2), pages 36-50, April.
    16. K. -L. Wang & Y. -T. Tseng & C. -C. Weng, 2003. "A study of production efficiencies of integrated securities firms in Taiwan," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(3), pages 159-167.
    17. Günter Knieps, 2006. "Competition in the Post-Trade Markets: A Network Economic Analysis of the Securities Business," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 6(1), pages 45-60, March.
    18. Takeshima, Hiroyuki & Hatzenbuehler, Patrick L. & Edeh, Hyacinth O., 2020. "Effects of agricultural mechanization on economies of scope in crop production in Nigeria," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    19. Xavier Fageda & Germa Bel, 2008. "Local privatization, intermunicipal cooperation,transaction costs and political interests: Evidence from Spain," IREA Working Papers 200804, University of Barcelona, Research Institute of Applied Economics, revised Apr 2008.
    20. Maciej Czaplewski, 2015. "Oddziaływanie regulacyjne Unii Europejskiej na rynek usług telekomunikacyjnych," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 5, pages 65-87.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:sae:envirc:v:28:y:2010:i:6:p:958-977. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.