THE PROBLEM OF HUMAN SCALE (original) (raw)

The Optimum Size of Local Public Administration

A renewed interest in decentralization has profoundly affected local public governance around the world. Faced with an increasing number of tasks, Dutch municipalities have recently sought physical centralization, merging into larger jurisdictions in order to target new policy areas more effectively and cost efficiently. Is such a policy of physical centralization wise? We study economies of scale in local public administration, and find – given transfer payments from central government and current cooperation between municipalities and after controlling for geographical, demographic and socio-economic variables – substantial unused scale economies of 20% for the average municipality. Between 2005 and 2014 the optimum size of municipalities increases from around 49,000 to 66,260 inhabitants, pointing at an increased importance of fixed costs relative to variable costs in local public administration. For other local government activities, we find either lower or no optimum scales.

Can governance at the right scale increase productivity? A comparative scoping review

Canadian Journal of Regional Science , 2022

Enhancing productivity is a common rationale for devolution, outsourcing and new institutional configurations and a recurring theme in public administration reforms. Functions such as urban planning, infrastructure development, water management, and transportation planning have clear spatial characteristics wherein their governance ideally spans their functional use and/or management. These considerations have led to municipal amalgamations and two-tier governance in an effort to consolidate functions and build economies of scale and to the creation of special purpose, intermediate or regional bodies to manage public investments and deliver specialised services. While there is a growing urban literature on governance at the right scale in certain policy areas, far fewer studies explore these factors in lower density places (towns and rural and remote areas). Moreover, how effective and efficient governance might boost productivity both within the institution and more generally, across the local/regional economy is underexplored. This paper takes stock of how governance at the right scale might improve public sector productivity in different types of places—urban, rural and remote. It draws on theoretical, empirical and policy literature to explore how scale matters to public sector productivity and governance.

Myths and Realities of Economies of Scale in Local Government

This paper investigates the claim that larger local authorities serving larger populations are more efficient and can save money through economies of scale. We review an extensive range of international research on this topic and on local authority mergers. We also examine the relationship between size and expenditure and service levels, drawing on available data on Irish local government. Overall, the research suggests a weak link between size and efficiency, and there is little evidence to suggest that larger local authorities will be more efficient or cost less than smaller local authorities. In an Irish context, this article critically examines some of the fundamental assumptions about the relationship between scale and efficiency in the context of Irish local government. The research suggests that most local authority services do not appear to possess economies of scale, and merging local authorities may have little or no effect on savings in most services – indeed larger local authorities can sometimes be more expensive due to diseconomies of scale. Local authority mergers also involve considerable transitional costs. There are however certain selected areas within local government where economies of scale may exist – the most likely candidates are highly specialised services, the production costs of capital-intensive services, and some administrative overheads and ‘back office’ corporate functions. However, reaping savings from these areas could be done through local authorities entering into shared service arrangements which do not involve the transitional costs implied by full-scale mergers. Contrary perhaps to popular belief, county and city councils, the primary units of local government in Ireland, are in any case already very large by international standards.

Urban Scaling and Its Relation with Governance Structures and Future Prospects of Cities

2018

We investigated the socioeconomic urban scaling behavior in three European Union countries: Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands. In the case of Denmark our analysis relates to all 96 municipalities. We investigate the scaling of larger cities, municipalities within the Copenhagen agglomeration, and municipalities in rural areas. We also distinguish between municipalities with high and low centrality. We find superlinear scaling of the gross urban product with population size in all cases, with exponents between 1.14 and 1.23, and for municipalities in rural areas a surprisingly high value of 1.39. In Germany we distinguish between major cities of which the surrounding urban region belongs to the municipality of the city, the ‘Kreisfreie Städte’ (in total 106), and ‘Kreise’, i.e., regions around smaller cities consisting of several municipalities (in total 296). A striking finding is that the scaling exponents differ substantially from one region to another. We find in most cases a...

Public sector and productivity: Governance at the right scale

Background paper for the OECD-EC High-Level Expert Workshop Series “Productivity Policy for Places”, April 18-19., 2021

‘Place matters’ has become a mantra among diverse researchers and scholarship on local and interregional dynamics, political institutions and actors and has ballooned in recent years. Public sector governance entails the institutions by which public goods and services are delivered and how collective goals are determined and accomplished. Enhancing productivity is a common rationale for devolution, outsourcing and new institutional configurations and a recurring theme in public administration reforms. This paper takes stock of how governance at the right scale can improve public sector (and private sector) productivity in different types of places—urban, rural and remote. It draws on theoretical, empirical and policy literature to explore: (1) How scale matters to public sector productivity and governance; (2) How governance at the right scale can be enhanced (e.g., getting the incentives right); (3) The barriers to productivity improvements in all types of regions and (4) Future opportunities and challenges, including those related to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Scale Effect on The Size of Local Government in Indonesia

2020

Proliferation of local government increased substantially after the Law of Local Government No. 22 Year of 1999 and the Law Fiscal Balance No. 25 Year of 1999. The objective of proliferation is to provide public service closely to the community. Therefore, public welfare can be obtained faster. The number of local governments grew significantly due to the New Law allowed and relaxed to form new local government. Based on the recent data in 2016, the number of Regency are 416 and the number of City are 98. The objective of this paper is to identify the scale effect on the size of local government in Indonesia. The measurement of scale effect is based on the spending of budget on specific sector such as, health, education and infrastructure on the number of populations, area and population density. Econometric analysis will be used to identify whether there is an optimal size of local government among local governments in Indonesia. The result of this study shows that there is no opti...