IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/jpamgt/v26y2007i1p57-77.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Employment, privatization, and managerial choice: Does contracting out reduce public sector employment?

Author

Listed:
  • Sergio Fernandez

    (Indiana University)

  • Craig R. Smith

    (University of Georgia School of Public & International Affairs)

  • Jeffrey B. Wenger

    (University of Georgia School of Public & International Affairs)

Abstract

We examine the effects of governments' use of alternative service provision on public employment using panel data from a nationally representative sample of local governments. We model the effects of alternative service provision on the size of the public workforce and hypothesize that alternative provision jointly impacts both full- and part-time employment. We find evidence of an inter-relationship between these employment types. Our results from seemingly unrelated and 3SLS regressions indicate that full-time employment in the public sector declines when additional services are provided by for-profit providers, while part-time employment increases. The net employment effect in the public sector is negative when government services are moved to the for-profit sector. These combined effects result in a compositional shift toward more part-time public sector employment. © 2006 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management

Suggested Citation

  • Sergio Fernandez & Craig R. Smith & Jeffrey B. Wenger, 2007. "Employment, privatization, and managerial choice: Does contracting out reduce public sector employment?," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(1), pages 57-77.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:jpamgt:v:26:y:2007:i:1:p:57-77
    DOI: 10.1002/pam.20227
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1002/pam.20227
    File Function: Link to full text; subscription required
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/pam.20227?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. David E. M. Sappington & Joseph E. Stiglitz, 1987. "Privatization, information and incentives," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 6(4), pages 567-585.
    2. Williamson, Oliver E, 1999. "Public and Private Bureaucracies: A Transaction Cost Economics Perspective," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 15(1), pages 306-342, April.
    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. Marius Constantin PROFIROIU & Septimiu Rares SZABO, 2016. "Outsourcing vs decentralisation: A comparative analysis in Central and Eastern Europe," Eco-Economics Review, Ecological University of Bucharest, Economics Faculty and Ecology and Environmental Protection Faculty, vol. 2(2), pages 3-26, December.

    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. 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.
    2. Germà Bel & Jordi Rosell, 2016. "Public and Private Production in a Mixed Delivery System: Regulation, Competition and Costs," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(3), pages 533-558, June.
    3. Peeter Peda & Giuseppe Grossi & Margo Liik, 2013. "Do ownership and size affect the performance of water utilities? Evidence from Estonian municipalities," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 17(2), pages 237-259, May.
    4. Xavier Fageda & Germa Bel, 2008. "Choosing hybrid organizations for local servicesdelivery: An empirical analysis of partial privatization," IREA Working Papers 200803, University of Barcelona, Research Institute of Applied Economics, revised Apr 2008.
    5. Alonso, José M. & Clifton, Judith & Díaz-Fuentes, Daniel, 2017. "The impact of government outsourcing on public spending: Evidence from European Union countries," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 333-348.
    6. Daniel Albalate & Germ� Bel & R. Richard Geddes, 2015. "The determinants of contractual choice for private involvement in infrastructure projects," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(1), pages 87-94, January.
    7. Roland Zullo, 2019. "Explaining Privatization Failure: The Vice of Sweet Carrots and Hard Sticks," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 51(1), pages 111-128, March.
    8. Germa Bel & Xavier Fageda, 2008. "Reforming the local public sector: economics and politics in privatization of water and solid waste," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 11(1), pages 45-65.
    9. Daniel Albalate & Germà Bel & R. Richard Geddes, 2012. "“The determinants of contractual choice for private involvement in infrastructure projects in the United States”," IREA Working Papers 201220, University of Barcelona, Research Institute of Applied Economics, revised Dec 2012.
    10. Lazzarini,Sergio G., 2022. "The Right Privatization," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781316519714.
    11. Céline Chatelin, 2003. "Efficience vs inefficience des organisations publiques : la contribution des théories contractuelles," Working Papers 2003-5, Laboratoire Orléanais de Gestion - université d'Orléans.
    12. Norimichi Matsueda & Jun’Ichi Miki, 2017. "Contracting-Out Of Household Waste Collection Services In Japan," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 65(02), pages 443-455, May.
    13. David Martimort & Flavio Menezes & Myrna Wooders & ELISABETTA IOSSA & DAVID MARTIMORT, 2015. "The Simple Microeconomics of Public-Private Partnerships," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 17(1), pages 4-48, February.
    14. Laurent Franckx & Isabelle Brose, 2004. "A theoretical framework for incentives in the public sector," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 10(2), pages 1-8.
    15. Birgitte Grøgaard & Asmund Rygh & Gabriel R. G. Benito, 2019. "Bringing corporate governance into internalization theory: State ownership and foreign entry strategies," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 50(8), pages 1310-1337, October.
    16. Elisabetta Iossa & David Martimort, 2012. "Risk allocation and the costs and benefits of public--private partnerships," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 43(3), pages 442-474, September.
    17. Kafigi Jeje, 2020. "Risk-Taking and Performance of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises: Lessons from Tanzanian Bakeries," Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, AMH International, vol. 12(3), pages 1-22.
    18. Germa Bel & Anton Costas, 2006. "Do Public Sector Reforms Get Rusty? Local Privatization in Spain," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(1), pages 1-24.
    19. Luc Baumstark & Claude Ménard & William Roy & Anne Yvrande-Billon, 2005. "Modes de gestion et efficience des opérateurs dans le secteur des transports urbains de personnes," Post-Print halshs-00103116, HAL.
    20. Megginson, William Leon, 2005. "The Financial Economics of Privatization," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195150629.

    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:wly:jpamgt:v:26:y:2007:i:1:p:57-77. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/34787/home .

    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.