Market Mechanisms in Public Service Provision

Hansjörg Blöchliger

No 626, OECD Economics Department Working Papers from OECD Publishing

Abstract: This paper presents a new set of institutional indicators that assess how sub-central governments harness market mechanisms such as tendering, outsourcing, user choice and competition, user fees and output-related funding when providing public services. Services put under scrutiny comprise primary, secondary and tertiary education, hospital care, childcare and elderly care, public transport, and waste collection. Results indicate that governments are often reluctant to apply market mechanisms when providing public services. “Technical” services such as transport or waste collection are more open to market mechanisms than “social” services like education or health care. Regulatory innovations such as tendering, competition or user choice are more advanced than financial innovations like user fees or output-related funding for service providers.

Le rôle des mécanismes du marché dans les services publics Ce document présent un nouvel ensemble d’indicateurs institutionnels qui évaluent comment les administrations infranationales en tant que prestataires de services publics font appel aux mécanismes du marché comme les appels d’offres, la sous-traitance, le choix des usagers, la concurrence, les redevances et le financement lié au résultat. Les services examinés ici comprennent l’éducation primaire, secondaire et tertiaire, les soins hospitaliers, les soins à la petite enfance et aux personnes âgées, les transports publics et la collecte des déchets. Les résultats montrent que les administrations publiques sont souvent réticentes à appliquer les mécanismes du marché. Les services « techniques » tels que les transports ou la collecte des déchets sont plus ouverts aux mécanismes du marché que les services « sociaux » tels que l’éducation ou les soins de santé. Les innovations réglementaires comme les appels d’offre, la concurrence ou le choix des usagers sont plus nombreuses que les innovations financières comme les redevances ou le financement lié au résultat.

Keywords: choix de l'usager; competition; concurrence; fiscal federalism; fédéralisme financier; privatisation; privatisation; public services; services publics; user choice (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H42 H50 H77 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008-08-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-pbe and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

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https://doi.org/10.1787/241001625762 (text/html)

Related works:
Working Paper: Market mechanisms in public service provision (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:626-en

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