IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/vua/wpaper/2007-3.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Contracting out: Dutch municipalities reject the solution for the VAT-distortion

Author

Listed:
  • Wassenaar, M.C.

    (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Faculteit der Economische Wetenschappen en Econometrie (Free University Amsterdam, Faculty of Economics Sciences, Business Administration and Economitrics)

  • Dijkgraaf, E.
  • Gradus, R.H.J.M.

Abstract

In 2003, the Dutch government introduced a VAT-compensation fund in order to create a level-playing field for local governments with respect to Value Added Tax (VAT). By introducing this fund the tax difference between governments that supply services themselves and governments that contract out to the private sector was eliminated. This paper shows, however, that according to most of the municipalities differences in VAT treatment did not hinder the contracting out of public services. Therefore, the fund lacks a great deal of its legitimacy. More important, the fund is not effective, as the number of contracted public services has hardly increased since the introduction. In general, municipalities have a negative opinion about this fund. They state that more than the budgetary effects, other arguments are relevant in the decision-making on the outsourcing of activities such as the quality of services and the employment in the own municipality. As the budgetary position for a number of municipalities will decline in the near future, the fund still may stimulate the outsourcing of public services in future.

Suggested Citation

  • Wassenaar, M.C. & Dijkgraaf, E. & Gradus, R.H.J.M., 2007. "Contracting out: Dutch municipalities reject the solution for the VAT-distortion," Serie Research Memoranda 0003, VU University Amsterdam, Faculty of Economics, Business Administration and Econometrics.
    • Handle: RePEc:vua:wpaper:2007-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://degree.ubvu.vu.nl/repec/vua/wpaper/pdf/20070003.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer & Robert Vishny, 1997. "Privatization in the United States," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 28(3), pages 447-471, Autumn.
    2. Elbert Dijkgraaf & Raymond H J M Gradus, 2008. "Institutional Developments in the Dutch Waste-Collection Market," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 26(1), pages 110-126, February.
    3. E. Dijkgraaf & R. Gradus, 2003. "Cost Savings of Contracting Out Refuse Collection," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 30(2), pages 149-161, June.
    4. Henry Ohlsson, 2003. "Ownership and Production Costs: Choosing between Public Production and Contracting-Out in the Case of Swedish Refuse Collection," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 24(4), pages 451-476, December.
    5. Germà Bel & Antonio Miralles, 2003. "Factors Influencing the Privatisation of Urban Solid Waste Collection in Spain," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 40(7), pages 1323-1334, June.
    6. Domberger, Simon & Jensen, Paul, 1997. "Contracting Out by the Public Sector: Theory, Evidence, Prospects," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 13(4), pages 67-78, Winter.
    7. M.C. Wassenaar & R.H.J.M. Gradus, 2004. "Contracting out: The Importance of a Solution for the VAT Distortion," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 50(2), pages 377-396.
    8. Christoffersen, Henrik & Paldam, Martin, 2003. "Markets and Municipalities: A Study of the Behavior of the Danish Municipalities," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 114(1-2), pages 79-102, January.
    9. E. Dijkgraaf & R. H. J. M. Gradus & B. Melenberg, 2003. "Contracting out refuse collection," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 553-570, July.
    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. Lazrak, F. & Nijkamp, P. & Rietveld, P. & Rouwendal, J., 2011. "The market of listed heritage: An urban economic application of spatial hedonic pricing," Serie Research Memoranda 0027, VU University Amsterdam, Faculty of Economics, Business Administration and Econometrics.
    2. Copenhagen Economics & KPMG, 2011. "VAT in the Public Sector and Exemptions in the Public Interest," Taxation Studies 0037, Directorate General Taxation and Customs Union, European Commission.
    3. Tatiana-Camelia DOGARU, 2014. "Contracting Out The Pensions System In Romania," Management and Marketing Journal, University of Craiova, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, vol. 0(1), pages 91-102, May.
    4. 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.
    5. Copenhagen Economics, 2013. "VAT in the Public Sector and Exemptions in the Public Interest," Taxation Studies 0045, Directorate General Taxation and Customs Union, European Commission.

    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. 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.
    2. E. Dijkgraaf & R.H.J.M. Gradus, 2008. "How to Get Increasing Competition in the Dutch Refuse Collection Market?," Springer Books, in: E. Dijkgraaf & R.H.J.M. Gradus (ed.), The Waste Market, chapter 0, pages 101-109, Springer.
    3. Germà Bel & Xavier Fageda, 2009. "Factors explaining local privatization: a meta-regression analysis," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 139(1), pages 105-119, April.
    4. 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.
    5. Elinder, Mikael & Jordahl, Henrik, 2013. "Political preferences and public sector outsourcing," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 43-57.
    6. Jaakko Meriläinen & Janne Tukiainen, 2019. "Public Procurement versus Laissez-Faire: Evidence from Household Waste Collection," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 65(4), pages 446-463.
    7. Juri Demuth & Hans W. Friederiszick & Steffen Reinhold, 2018. "Reverse privatization as a reaction to the competitive environment: Evidence from solid waste collection in Germany," ESMT Research Working Papers ESMT-18-02_R1, ESMT European School of Management and Technology, revised 05 Oct 2021.
    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. Germà Bel & Xavier Fageda & Melania Mur, 2010. "¿Por qué se privatizan servicios en los municipios (pequeños)? Evidencia empírica sobre residuos sólidos y agua," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 192(1), pages 33-58, March.
    10. Juri Demuth & Hans W. Friederiszick & Steffen Reinhold, 2022. "Reverse Privatization as a Reaction to the Competitive Environment: Evidence from Solid Waste Collection in Germany," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 60(2), pages 217-261, March.
    11. Germa Bel & Anton Costas, 2004. "Do public sector reforms get rusty? An empirical analysis on privatization of solid waste collection," Public Economics 0409014, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    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. Elbert Dijkgraaf & Raymond Gradus, 2015. "Efficiency Effects of Unit-Based Pricing Systems and Institutional Choices of Waste Collection," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 61(4), pages 641-658, August.
    14. Jorge Guardiola & Francisco González-Gómez & Miguel A. García-Rubio, 2008. "Is the time dimension really important in research into contracting out?," FEG Working Paper Series 08/02, Faculty of Economics and Business (University of Granada).
    15. Anders Sundell & Victor Lapuente, 2012. "Adam Smith or Machiavelli? Political incentives for contracting out local public services," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 153(3), pages 469-485, December.
    16. Bel Germà & Fageda Xavier & E. Mildred, 2014. "Is private production of public services cheaper than public production? A meta-regression analysis of solid waste and water services," Public administration issues, Higher School of Economics, issue 3, pages 103-140.
    17. Germà Bel & Xavier Fageda & Melania Mur, 2011. "Why do municipalities cooperate to provide local public services? An empirical analysis," IREA Working Papers 201118, University of Barcelona, Research Institute of Applied Economics, revised Oct 2011.
    18. Suho Bae, 2010. "Public Versus Private Delivery Of Municipal Solid Waste Services: The Case Of North Carolina," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 28(3), pages 414-428, July.
    19. Bel, Germà & Warner, Mildred, 2008. "Does privatization of solid waste and water services reduce costs? A review of empirical studies," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 52(12), pages 1337-1348.
    20. Bertacchini, Enrico & Dalle Nogare, Chiara, 2014. "Public provision vs. outsourcing of cultural services: Evidence from Italian cities," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 168-182.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    VAT; Contracting out; Municipalities; Compensation fund;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies
    • H32 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Firm
    • L33 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - Comparison of Public and Private Enterprise and Nonprofit Institutions; Privatization; Contracting Out

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:vua:wpaper:2007-3. 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: R. Dam (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fewvunl.html .

    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.