Journal

Public Administration Review

Public Administration Review (PAR), a bi-monthly professional journal, has been the premier journal in the field of public administration research, theory, and practice for 75 years. It is published for the American Society for Public Administration,TM/SM and is the only journal in public administration that serves both academics and practitioners interested in the public sector and public sector management. Articles identify and analyze current trends, provide a factual basis for decision making, stimulate discussion, and make the leading literature in the field available in an easily accessible format. With articles on a wide range of topics and expert book reviews, PAR is exciting to read and an indispensable resource.

Article

Wenchi Wei, Zhiwei Zhang, Kaifeng Yang. Local institutions and public service outsourcing: Managerial professionalism, mayoral strength, and electoral rules. Public Administration Review.Volume 82,Issue 6.p.1095-1123

Author

Wenchi Wei, Assistant Professor, School of Public Administration and Policy, RUC

Kaifeng Yang, Professor, School of Public Administration and Policy, RUC

Abstract

This research examines how institutional contexts matter for US municipalities’ service outsourcing decisions, deriving data from the ICMA’s multiple rounds of surveys concerning local institutions and service delivery choices. We focus on seven pivotal local institutions that address managerial professionalism, mayoral strength, and electoral rules. Moreover, a composite index measuring the general nature of the municipal structure on a political–administrative scale is constructed based on the local institutions examined. The empirical estimations use the existence of initiatives and popular referenda allowing citizen voters to adjust local statutes as instrumental variables for local institutions. We find that municipalities with a council-manager municipal form, a professional manager, a weak mayor, and nonpartisan and at-large elections of council members outsource less services. Professional managers can moderate the effects of contextual factors on government outsourcing decisions. Moreover, municipalities with a more political or a less administrative municipal structure outsource a larger portion of services.

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