Citizen coproduction and efficient public good provision: Theory and evidence from local public libraries

Kristof De Witte and Benny Geys

Discussion Papers, Research Professorship & Project "The Future of Fiscal Federalism" from WZB Berlin Social Science Center

Abstract: In both public administration and economics, efficiency is brought forward as an important criterion for evaluating administrative actions. Clearly, its value as an assessment principle depends on our ability to adequately measure efficiency. This article argues that citizen's coproduction in public services requires a careful reassessment of how we approach the measurement of productive efficiency in public service delivery. Theoretically, we illustrate that using observable outcomes (e.g., library circulation, school results, health outcomes, fires extinguished, crimes solved) as output indicators is inappropriate and leads to biased estimates of public service providers' productive efficiency. This bias arises because citizens co-determine final outputs, leaving them at least partly beyond the service providers' control. Empirically, we find supportive evidence of both the existence and importance of such 'demand-induced' bias.

Keywords: citizen coproduction; public service provision; technical efficiency; local government; libraries (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C14 C61 I21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Journal Article: Citizen coproduction and efficient public good provision: Theory and evidence from local public libraries (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:wzbfff:spii2012108

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