Can alternative service delivery save cities after the Great Recession? Barriers to privatisation and cooperation

Yunji Kim

Local Government Studies, 2018, vol. 44, issue 1, 44-63

Abstract: Cities continue to face fiscal challenges after the Great Recession and alternative service delivery is being emphasised as a solution. How promising is alternative service delivery as a solution and what are its barriers? Regression analyses using 2012 survey data of US local governments show that local governments manage procedural barriers, but structural barriers of economy and demography hinder privatisation and cooperation. Places with a housing bust (measured as decline in home values) can use privatisation, but not places with more or increased poverty. Cooperation is more promising for places with increased poverty, but lack of a willing partner hinders this spatially constrained tool. Neither cooperation nor privatisation is promising for places with low home values. State governments must level the playing field for localities with weak economies if market approaches to service delivery are the main tools for local governments to survive fiscal stress.

Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1080/03003930.2017.1395740

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