Content area
Full Text
Public Choice (2012) 151:215228
DOI 10.1007/s11127-010-9744-0
Andrs J Picazo-Tadeo Francisco Gonzlez-Gmez
Jorge Guardiola Wanden-Berghe
Alberto Ruiz-Villaverde
Received: 23 December 2009 / Accepted: 23 November 2010 / Published online: 3 December 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010
Abstract This paper studies the inuence of ideology and political motives on the choice of management for urban water services. Our contribution is two-fold. Firstly, we use a considerably more detailed set of variables to represent ideological and political motives than previous research. Secondly, the variables that explain local politicians decisions are observed at the time decision-making occurs, rather than at a later date. Beyond pragmatic reasons, we nd that ideological and political motives also matter when explaining decisions regarding the management of water services. Furthermore, considering the time dimension of decision-making noticeably improves the explanatory power of our model.
Keywords Urban water services Local governments Contracting out Privatization
Ideological and political motives Decision-making Public Choice
JEL Classication C25 H83 L33
1 Introduction
Over the last quarter of a century, most industrialized countries, albeit to different extents, have changed their laws to encourage the contracting out of municipal services. In general, local governments have been given the power to choose who manages municipal services. As a result, some municipalities decided to contract out, while in others the city or town council itself still provides these services. At the same time, researchers have become increasingly interested in studying the behavior of local politicians regarding their decision-making for procuring municipal services.
A.J. Picazo-Tadeo ( )
Departamento de Economa Aplicada II, Universidad de Valencia, Campus dels Tarongers, 46022 Valencia, Spaine-mail: mailto:[email protected]
Web End [email protected]
F. Gonzlez-Gmez J.G. Wanden-Berghe A. Ruiz-Villaverde
Departamento de Economa Aplicada, Universidad de Granada, C/ Rector Lpez Argeta s/n, 18011 Granada, Spain
Do ideological and political motives really matter in the public choice of local services management? Evidence from urban water services in Spain
216 Public Choice (2012) 151:215228
Following the pioneering research of Ferris (1986), which analyzed the causes behind cities in the United States contracting out municipal services, numerous papers have studied the determinants of local government decisions regarding the management of local services (Bel and Fageda 2007, 2009 review the literature). In general, applied research highlights that these decisions are mainly pragmatic, ideological preferences and political...