IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/mareco/v15y2021i3p353-386.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Citizens’ Perceptions of Local Government Services and Their Trust in Local Authorities: Implications for Local Government in Mauritius

Author

Listed:
  • Sanju Naraidoo

    (Sanju Naraidoo (corresponding author) is at the Department of Accounting, Finance and Law, Curtin Mauritius, Moka, Mauritius)

  • Sanjeev K. Sobhee

    (Sanjeev K. Sobhee is at the Department of Economics and Statistics, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Mauritius, Moka, Mauritius; e-mail: sksobhee@uom.ac.mu)

Abstract

The linkage between local perceptions of municipal services and the level of trust in the local government is an under-researched and yet relevant aspect for a small multi-ethnic island like Mauritius. This research draws from the opinions of some 400 Mauritian inhabitants gathered through a Citizens’ Satisfaction Survey carried out in 2018 to evaluate the attitudes of citizens towards local government services and trigger further research on future options for improving the local government sector. The results from a structural equation modelling (SEM) indicate that satisfaction with local outputs is a significant predictor of trust in local authorities. Trust in public institutions is also found to be a possible mediator in this nexus. Further probing into citizens’ responses reveals that their preferences for local public goods differ across jurisdictions and vary with level of education. Findings also point to a tendency for citizen mobility which can have important implications for improving local services through fiscal decentralisation. JEL Classification: H1, H3, H4

Suggested Citation

  • Sanju Naraidoo & Sanjeev K. Sobhee, 2021. "Citizens’ Perceptions of Local Government Services and Their Trust in Local Authorities: Implications for Local Government in Mauritius," Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, National Council of Applied Economic Research, vol. 15(3), pages 353-386, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:mareco:v:15:y:2021:i:3:p:353-386
    DOI: 10.1177/09738010211010515
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09738010211010515
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/09738010211010515?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. Seunghwan Myeong & Hyungjun Seo, 2016. "Which Type of Social Capital Matters for Building Trust in Government? Looking for a New Type of Social Capital in the Governance Era," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(4), pages 1-15, March.
    2. Dilip Mookherjee & Pranab K. Bardhan, 2000. "Capture and Governance at Local and National Levels," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(2), pages 135-139, May.
    3. Charles M. Tiebout, 1956. "A Pure Theory of Local Expenditures," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 64(5), pages 416-416.
    4. Boris Bartikowski & Katsuyuki Kamei & Jean-Louis Chandon, 2010. "A verbal rating scale to measure Japanese consumers' perceptions of product quality," Post-Print hal-01796024, HAL.
    5. Dilip Mookherjee & Pranab K. Bardhan, 2012. "Political Clientelism and Capture: Theory and Evidence from West Bengal, India," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2012-097, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    6. Mookherjee, Dilip & Bardhan, Pranab K., 2012. "Political Clientelism and Capture: Theory and Evidence from West Bengal, India," WIDER Working Paper Series 097, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    7. Oates, Wallace E., 2008. "On the Evolution of Fiscal Federalism: Theory and Institutions," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 61(2), pages 313-334, June.
    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. Lewis, Blane D. & Nguyen, Hieu T.M. & Hendrawan, Adrianus, 2020. "Political accountability and public service delivery in decentralized Indonesia: Incumbency advantage and the performance of second term mayors," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    2. Pranab Bardhan, 2016. "State and Development: The Need for a Reappraisal of the Current Literature," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 54(3), pages 862-892, September.
    3. Muhammad Haseeb & Kate Vyborny, 2016. "Imposing institutions: Evidence from cash transfer reform in Pakistan," CSAE Working Paper Series 2016-36, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    4. Anderson, Siwan & Francois, Patrick, 2023. "Reservations and the politics of fear," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 225(C).
    5. Shrabani Mukherjee & Vivek Jadhav & Debdulal Thakur, 2022. "Budgetary Advocacy and Public Finance Management for North-Eastern Region in India," Working Papers 2022-224, Madras School of Economics,Chennai,India.
    6. Afridi, Farzana, 2017. "Governance and Public Service Delivery in India," IZA Discussion Papers 10856, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Ines Helm & Jan Stuhler, 2024. "The Dynamic Response of Municipal Budgets to Revenue Shocks," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 16(4), pages 484-527, October.
    8. Lars P. Feld & Horst Zimmermann & Thomas Döring, 2003. "Föderalismus, Dezentralität und Wirtschaftswachstum," Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung / Quarterly Journal of Economic Research, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 72(3), pages 361-377.
    9. Zhao, Feifei & Hu, Zheng & Yi, Ping & Zhao, Xu, 2024. "Does environmental decentralization improve industrial ecology? Evidence from China's Yangtze River Economic Belt," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 1250-1270.
    10. Khanna, Madhulika & Majumdar, Shruti, 2020. "Caste-ing wider nets of credit: A mixed methods analysis of informal lending and caste relations in Bihar," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 20(C).
    11. Sailian Xia & Daming You & Zhihua Tang & Bo Yang, 2021. "Analysis of the Spatial Effect of Fiscal Decentralization and Environmental Decentralization on Carbon Emissions under the Pressure of Officials’ Promotion," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-21, March.
    12. Ali, Amin Masud & Savoia, Antonio, 2023. "Decentralisation or patronage: What determines government's allocation of development spending in a unitary country? Evidence from Bangladesh," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    13. Raúl A Ponce-Rodríguez & Charles R Hankla & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez & Eunice Heredia-Ortiz, 2018. "Rethinking the Political Economy of Decentralization: How Elections and Parties Shape the Provision of Local Public Goods," Publius: The Journal of Federalism, CSF Associates Inc., vol. 48(4), pages 523-558.
    14. Sonin, Konstantin, 2010. "Provincial protectionism," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 111-122, June.
    15. Lars P. Feld, 2006. "Regulatory Competition and Federalism in Switzerland: Diffusion by Horizontal and Vertical Interaction," CREMA Working Paper Series 2006-22, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    16. Jose M Alonso & Rhys Andrews, 2019. "Fiscal decentralisation and local government efficiency: Does relative deprivation matter?," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 37(2), pages 360-381, March.
    17. Marta Espasa & Alejandro Esteller-Moré & Toni Mora, 2017. "Is Decentralization Really Welfare Enhancing? Empirical Evidence from Survey Data (1994-2011)," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 70(2), pages 189-219, May.
    18. Bharatee Bhusana, Ferris, J Stephen Dash & Stanley L. Winer, 2018. "Measuring Electoral Competitiveness: With Application to the Indian States," CESifo Working Paper Series 7216, CESifo.
    19. Mike Seiferling, 2020. "Apples, oranges and lemons: public sector debt statistics in the 21st century," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 6(1), pages 1-17, December.
    20. Bobonis, Gustavo & Gertler, Paul & Gonzalez-Navarro, Marco & Nichter, Simeon, 2023. "Does Combating Corruption Reduce Clientelism?," Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley, Working Paper Series qt13k514pd, Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Local Service Performance; Political Trust; Local Demand Differences; Citizen Mobility; Fiscal Decentralisation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H1 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government
    • H3 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents
    • H4 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods

    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:mareco:v:15:y:2021:i:3:p:353-386. 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: http://www.ncaer.org/ .

    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.