Andreas Bergh
Universitetslektor
What happens when municipalities run corporations? Empirical evidence from 290 Swedish municipalities
Författare
Summary, in English
Local governments are increasingly relying on municipally owned corporations (MOCs) to provide public services. Some describe this development as a rational response to austerity challenges and emphasise the cost-efficiency of MOCs (‘the optimistic view’). Others identify complications and associate MOCs with weak supervision, lack of accountability, and corruption risks (‘the sceptical view’). Hitherto, no studies have analysed these opposing claims on MOCs in the one and same inquiry. We address this gap by focusing on Sweden, which has experienced a dramatic growth in the number of MOCs. We examine the association between the number of MOCs, the business climate, satisfaction with local government, local tax rates, and a corruption index for all 290 Swedish municipalities. Putting the ‘optimistic view’ into doubt, results indicate that municipalities relying heavily on MOCs are associated with more perceived corruption and higher taxes but do not have more satisfied citizens nor a better business climate.
Avdelning/ar
- Nationalekonomiska institutionen
Publiceringsår
2022
Språk
Engelska
Sidor
704-727
Publikation/Tidskrift/Serie
Local Government Studies
Volym
48
Issue
4
Dokumenttyp
Artikel i tidskrift
Förlag
Taylor & Francis
Ämne
- Business Administration
Nyckelord
- arms-length principle
- corruption
- hybrid-organisations
- Municipally owned corporations
- new public management
- quasi-privatisation
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Övrigt
- ISSN: 0300-3930