Contracting out local government services: the B.C. experience

Abstract: This article discusses the findings of a detailed study of the practice of contracting out local government services in municipalities and regional districts in British Columbia. No similar study has been conducted in Canada to date, and comparable research in the United States has only examined the contracting of selected local government services. The findings are important for local government managers and elected officials because they indicate widespread reliance on contractors. Of all 124 local governments participating in the study, contractors were involved in the production of 32 per cent of all services. Of these, engineering services were the most likely to be produced by contractors (40.4 per cent). Specific comparisons of the B.C. findings with those in U.S. studies suggested that contracting for services was actually more widespread in B.C. than in the U.S. Further, reliance on contracting in B.C. had apparently increased over time. In 1980, 25 per cent of municipalities with a population over 10,000 contracted out the collection of residential solid waste. By 1989, that figure had increased to 54.8 per cent. Local government managers themselves saw no future reduction of the reliance on contracting; in fact, 22.8 per cent predicted an increase over the next five years. Sommaire: Cet article examine les constatations d'une étude détaillée sur la pratique des contrats de services parmi les municipalités et les districts régionaux de la Colombie-Britannique. Une telle étude n'a encore jamais été effectuée au Canada, et des recherches comparables aux États-Unis n'ont examiné que les contrats relatifs à certains services des gouvernements locaux. Les constatations sont importantes pour les gestionnaires et les élus des gouvernements locaux parce qu'elles révèlent le rôle très important des entreprises dans la prestation de services. Si l'on considère l'ensemble des 124 gouvernements locaux ayant participéà l'étude, les entrepreneurs sont impliqués dans la production de 32 pour cent de tous les services. Parmi les services fournis, ce sont les services d'ingénierie dont la plus forte proportion était assurée par des entrepreneurs (40,4 pour cent). Les coniparaisons spécifiques des ronstatations faitcs en Colornbie-Britannique à celles des études américaines suggerent que la Colornbie-Britannique fait davantage appel aux services sous-traités clue les États-Unis. Par ailleurs, la sous-traitance en Colombie-Britannique s'est apparernment accrue au fil des années. En 1980, 25 pour cent des municipaliteAs ayant une population de plus de 10 000 personnes avaient sous-traité le rarnassage des déchets solides résidentiels. En 1989, ce chiffre cyt passéà 51.8 pour cent. Les gestion-naires des gouvernements locaux eux-mêmes ne prévoient aucune réduction de la sous-traitance; en fait, 22,8 pour cent prévoient une augmentation au cours des cinq prochailies années.     

Do bonus offers shorten unemployment insurance spells? results from the washington experiment

Unemployment insurance is intended to reduce hardship by providing labor force members with partial wage replacement during periods of involuntary unemployment. However, in performing this income maintenance function, unemployment insurance may prolong spells of unemployment. Evidence from a field experiment conducted in Illinois in 1984 suggested that offering unemployment insurance claimants a modest cash bonus for rapid reemployment would increase the speed of return to work and reduce program costs. In 1988 a similar experiment, examining several different bonus offers, was conducted in the state of Washington. Evidence from the Washington experiment indicates that bonus offers do change job seeking behavior, but that only relatively generous bonus offers—about six times the weekly benefit amount—should be expected to significantly change the behavior of people eligible for unemployment benefits.     

Federal Court Responses to State and Local Claims of "Undue Burden" in Complying with The Americans with Disabilities Act

Are federal courts sympathetic to local and state officials'cost concerns, particularly when it comes to meeting the requirementsof the Americans with Disabilities Act? This is the fundamentalquery taken up by this analysis. After examining twenty-eightfederal ADA cases where state and local officials have goneto court claiming that complying with this civil rights measurewould be unduly burdensome, this study comes up with mixed findings.In some cases, the courts have been sensitive to cost concernsbut, in others, they have not. Despite these inconclusive findings,this study does cast some light on what state and local officialsmust do if they expect federal courts to be sensitive to theirconcerns.     

Government 'strength' and budget deficits in advanced democracies

Abstract. Roubini and Sachs provided the first systematic test of the idea that political structure the size, composition, diversity, and/or stability of a governing cabinet - is related to budget deficits. In this paper, we take issue with several of Roubini and Sachs' choices concerning data and operationalization, and argue that their approach cannot offer clear conclusions about the relationship between national political structure and budget deficits. We test the 'strength of government' hypothesis using central government finance data on 16 countries, 1959–1990. We measure deficits in a way that maximizes comparability across countries but avoids the potential problems of standardizing by GDP. We examine carefully the definition and measurement of 'strength of government', in light of recent theoretical and empirical work in comparative politics. We perform pooled time-series regression analysis of deficit change in 16 OECD countries for the period 1959–1990. We argue that while structural differences between governments may have little impact on deficits during good economic times, they may become especially noticeable and influential during periods when governments struggle to cope with severe economic problems.     

Books in review

He has also served as research director of the Guggenheim Foundation from 1972–1984. Among his books are Men in Groups; The Imperial Animal(with Robin Fox); The Manufacture of Evil;and The Pursuit of Pleasure.     

International organized crime

He has served as a consultant to the president’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, the National Security Council, and related agencies of the U.S. government. He has written, coauthored, or edited over sixteen books on intelligence and national security.     

Public choice and the EPA: Empirical evidence on carbon emissions violations

This study provides evidence of public choice determinants of the penalties assessed by the Environmental Protection Agency for carbon emissions violations. Following the work of Stigler (1971), Peltzman (1976), Tollison (1982), and Tullock (1989), this study points out that powerful business interest groups are able to use their political influence to shape EPA environmental policy for urban areas. The statistical estimates presented here suggest that business groups have limited power (through lobbying activity) in affecting the probability of the occurrence of an EPA citation for carbon emissions violations, while they may have considerable power in influencing thedegree of an EPA citation for carbon emissions standards, once a citation occurs.     

The measurability of budget related rent-seeking

It has been suggested that the extent of rent-seeking expenditures arising from attempts to influence budget allocations should be estimated by the absolute magnitude of the observed changes in allocation. Instead, we argue that it is the extent of theex ante prospective changes that determine the level of rent-seeking, and that in the presence of countervailing activity these may be quite unrelated to the ex post observed values. We further argue that the traditional rent-seeking model of competition for a pre-specified rent is inappropriate in this context.