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What Determines Local Governments' Cost-efficiency? The Case of Road Maintenance

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  • Alexander Kalb

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Kalb A. What determines local governments' cost-efficiency? The case of road maintenance, Regional Studies . This paper investigates the determinants of local governments' cost-efficiency in road maintenance for a panel of German counties using a broad variety of estimation approaches. More specifically, efficiency indices were calculated using non-parametric and parametric reference technologies, and were examined by estimating and comparing four different regression models. The results show that the disposable income of the counties' citizens, intergovernmental grants and the municipalities' payments to the counties influence efficiency negatively. Concerning political variables the results show weak evidence that efficiency decreases with an increasing share of seats of left-wing parties in the county council.

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  • Alexander Kalb, 2014. "What Determines Local Governments' Cost-efficiency? The Case of Road Maintenance," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(9), pages 1483-1498, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:regstd:v:48:y:2014:i:9:p:1483-1498
    DOI: 10.1080/00343404.2012.731044
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    2. 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.
    3. Fusco, Elisa & Allegrini, Veronica, 2020. "The role of spatial interdependence in local government cost efficiency: An application to waste Italian sector," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
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    5. Joseph Drew & Brian Dollery & Michael A. Kortt, 2016. "Peas in a Pod: Are Efficient Municipalities also Financially Sustainable?," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 26(2), pages 122-131, June.
    6. Carolin Fritzsche, 2018. "Analyzing the Efficiency of County Road Provision – Evidence from Eastern German Counties," ifo Working Paper Series 249, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.

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