Decentralization Policies in Public Administration in Slovakia and the Czech Republic, and Their Impact on Building Offices’ Scale Efficiency

Peter Fandel, Eleonora Marišová, Tomáš Malatinec and Ivana Lichnerová
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Peter Fandel: Department of Statistics and Operations Research, Faculty of Economics and Management, Slovak University of Agriculture, 949 76 Nitra, Slovakia
Eleonora Marišová: Department of Law, Faculty of European Studies and Regional Development, Slovak University of Agriculture, 949 76 Nitra, Slovakia
Tomáš Malatinec: Department of Regional Science and Management, Faculty of Economics, Technical University, 040 01 Košice, Slovakia
Ivana Lichnerová: Department of Law, Faculty of European Studies and Regional Development, Slovak University of Agriculture, 949 76 Nitra, Slovakia

Administrative Sciences, 2019, vol. 9, issue 4, 1-15

Abstract: Decentralization policy schemes (DPSs) in the public sector have been implemented in different ways by Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Both approaches have led to a transfer of competencies from state administration to self-government with the aim of improving the efficiency of the delivery of services. This paper presents a comparative scale efficiency analysis of the units performing services in the building order sector. The analysis is based on two unique regional datasets from two countries, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The DPS implemented in Slovakia is based on the principle of voluntary cooperation of municipalities. In the case of the Czech building sector, the competencies have been transferred to the newly created municipalities with delegated or extended competencies. This study aims to contribute to the research on efficiency in public administration. We focused on the relationship between two types of DPSs, and units’ scale efficiency. We also tried to determine whether a specific unit scale size could be identified as the most efficient. We employed a two-stage metafrontier approach based on procedures for evaluating program and managerial efficiency. The results show that different DPs have not led to statistically significant differences in performance, and it is not possible to identify the most efficient building office scale size.

Keywords: decentralization; local self-governments; building sector; building offices; scale efficiency; data envelopment analysis; metafrontier (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L M M0 M1 M10 M11 M12 M14 M15 M16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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