Introducing benchmarking in the Czech Republic and Slovakia

Abstract

In many cases the introduction of performance evaluation, performance management and performance financing schemes do not produce the expected results and even create perverse effects. The risks connected with their improper implementation are much higher in developing and transition countries, where the public sector is over-politicized, policy and management capacities are inadequate and resources and experience are limited or often almost absent.

Our study provides basic selected data on the use of benchmarking in public administration bodies in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The findings are clear. In spite of its high potential, benchmarking is not used regularly and properly either in Slovakia or in Czechia. Subjective barriers of its implementation, for example lack of accountability, the rent seeking attitudes of elected politicians and ineffective public services schemes might be most important limits. The situation is slowly improving, but the progress will be naturally limited by territorial fragmentation.     

Trends in local government in Europe

Abstract

The article explores which reform trends are expected to play a significant role in the further development of local government in European countries. Analysis is based on an adopted Delphi survey of (mainly academic) local government experts from thirty-two countries. Results include a list of trends structured by the perceived importance for the coming ten years. Redistributing responsibilities and duties across levels of government constitute the highest ratings out of all trends. Furthermore, results do not provide clear evidence to support a shift from public management to governance as has recently been proclaimed in academic debate and literature. Management topics continue to be of great importance. Last but not least, clusters extracted point to different reform groups, which highlight more reluctant or enthusiastic attitudes to the relevance of the suggested trends of the study.     

Reforming local public services

Abstract

The following article is aimed at analysing reforms in public service delivery and management at the local level of government in Germany and France from a cross-countries comparative perspective. Particular attention is paid to the results and effects these reform initiatives have caused with regard to the administrative organization, steering capacities, and output performance. Two major approaches of reform will be addressed: privatization, contracting-out, and ‘corporatization’ of local services on the one hand and public management reforms on the other. Proceeding from the distinct ‘starting conditions’ of reforms in the two local government systems, the question will be pursued, as to whether there has been an increasingly convergent or divergent development in French and German local service provision, and how these evolutions can be explained.     

The role of spatial interdependence in local government cost efficiency: An application to waste Italian sector

The paper aims to study the effect of spatial interdependence, among nearby municipalities, on public services efficiency. An empirical analysis on the waste disposal service in 4250 Italian municipalities was carried out to evaluate the efficiency of waste management expenditure, once the impact of positive/negative externalities, of neighbouring local governments, on efficiency levels is isolated. From a methodological point of view, our study extends the spatial stochastic frontier methodology proposed in Fusco & Vidoli (2013) usable only for production analysis, allowing to admit into a cost frontier the spatial autocorrelation among residuals. Ignoring spatial autocorrelation leads to inferential problems violating one of the most important assumption of classical regression models: the non-correlation of the residuals. We found a significant spatial interdependence among neighbouring municipalities in term of cost efficiency, that, thanks to the methodology proposed, has been isolated allowing a discussion on the specific efficiency of municipalities. These results may suggest the need to consider proximity effects in future investigations about the efficiency of waste management and, more generally, of public services.     

Efficiency in Banking: Empirical Evidence from the Czech Republic

The paper examines the cost efficiency of the Czech-banking system in the 1990s by applying the distribution free approach model. Reported results indicate that foreign banks were on average more efficient than the other banks, although their efficiency was comparable with the ‘good’ small banks’ efficiency in early years of their operation. Based on the estimated results it is argued that early privatisation of state-owned commercial banks and more liberal policy towards foreign banks in the early stage of transition would have enhanced the efficiency in the banking system. Anita Taci - The views and opinions are those of the author and not necessarily those of the EBRD.     

Central government subsidies to local public goods

We examine the welfare effects of a central government's subsidy for a local public good in a Nash equilibrium model with two types of public goods. We first show that the welfare effect depends on the substitution and evaluation effects. We also investigate the optimal subsidy rate in a second-best framework and explore how the optimal subsidy scheme depends on the relative evaluation of the two types of public goods. Received: August 20, 1998/accepted: February 12, 2002 RID="*" ID="*" We are grateful to John Quigley, Minoru Kunisaki, Tom Panella, Andy Haughwout, Steven Craig, William Hoyt, Michael Ash, Konrad Stahl, Amihai Glazer, David Wildasin and two referees for helpful comments and suggestions, An early version of this paper was presented at a seminar at University of California, Berkeley and at conferences at JAEE Annual Meeting in Japan, North American Meetings of The RSAI in Washington, WSAI conference in Hawaii, Public Choice Meeting in San Francisco.     

Understanding continuity in public sector HRM through neo‐institutional theory: why national collective bargaining has survived in English local government

Most HRM research over recent decades has concentrated on ‘change’, charting ever more fragmented, individualised and unitarist employment relationships. This is equally true of public sector HRM, where the emphasis has been on neo‐liberalism and marketisation. However, in many countries and sectors, collective, pluralist approaches to HRM and industrial relations have proved remarkably resilient. This article uses Neo‐Institutional theory to explain the ‘continuity’ of one such HRM system: national collective bargaining in English local government (1979–2007). We argue that this survives because it manages the political and managerial processes that link central government and central–local relations and acts as a conduit between institutional stakeholders to deliver services to the public. By understanding the ‘passive consensus’ that holds the collectivist HRM system together, we can anticipate the forces that might pull it apart.     

Clash of public administration paradigms in delegation of education and elderly care services in a post-socialist state (Poland)*

The aim of this article is to analyse the clash of concurrent perspectives (Public Administration (PA), New Public Management (NPM) and New Public Governance (NPG)) in the area of delegating public services by local governments to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in education and the elderly care sector in Poland. The article is based on 22 case studies of service delegation throughout Poland, carried out at the University of Warsaw in 2013 as part of an Innovative Project within the framework of the EC Human Capital Programme.     

The Flemish government's responsibility for local government modernization

Abstract

Throughout Western Europe, local government is modernized. Central and regional governments carry responsibility for this modernization because they decide upon its nature. However, this responsibility reaches out further since a higher-level government also carries responsibility for the success of its modernization at the local level. The article unravels this responsibility for local government modernization in the case of the Flemish government. As a result of Belgian state reform, this government counts today as the most important higher-level government from the viewpoint of local government in Flanders.     

Silent accounting harmonisation: Towards the presentation of cash flow models in the local government and business fields in Norway

In most countries around the world there are differences in the systems of accounting in the business and non-business sectors. In recent years, however, the governments in some countries have started to apply the accrual-based accounting principles that are used in the business field. In Norway, however, another development can be noted. In the later 1980s business organisations and local governments both started independently to move towards a cash flow reporting system. It is thus suggested here that a silent accounting harmonisation process is taking place in Norway between business and local government. The purpose of the article is to describe and discuss this process, and the harmonised financial statements themselves. Suggestions for further research are also made.     

Resisting government rendered surveillance in a local authority

ABSTRACT

The paper illustrates and discusses how the performance management systems in a UK local authority are transformed into a surveillance system. A case study analysis reveals that the surveillance is engendered by central government and enacted by senior managers who conform to policies demanding the introduction of strict performance management systems that dehumanize work processes because employees are deemed untrustworthy. The paper shows that employees resist this government rendered surveillance because they believe it undermines their interests as well as the interests of the public by damaging the quality of the services delivered.     

地方政府的"土地财政"及其弊端

目前我国地方政府把土地作为增加财政收入的工具,对地方财政和土地资源的可持续利用造成不利的影响。分析了财政激励条件下地方政府的土地利用行为,并在环境保护视角下深入分析这些行为对地方财政和土地资源的影响。发现由于土地资源的稀缺性,地方政府以持续开发土地作为发展动力的土地财政不是一种可持续的发展模式,不能为地方政府带来稳定的财政收入,终将导致财政收入的枯竭。     

Work characteristics and employee outcomes in local government

The overall objective of this study was to examine the work characteristics that make significant contributions to extra-role performance (as measured by the helping dimension of citizenship behaviour) and employee wellbeing (measured by job satisfaction and psychological health) in a local government. The work characteristics examined were based on the demand-control-support (DCS) model, augmented by organization-specific characteristics. The results indicate that characteristics described in the core DCS are just as relevant to extra-role performance as they are to more traditional indicators of job stress. Although the more situation-specific conditions were not predictive of citizenship behaviour, they made unique contributions to job satisfaction.     

Ethical Climate and Accountability in Nonprofit Organizations

The Best Value regime, which is being introduced in the UK from April 2000, is rooted in the ‘new public management’ paradigm but also seeks to move beyond it. Like compulsory competitive tendering (CCT) which preceded it, the Best Value framework stresses the role of markets and performance management systems in the provision of public services. However, it appears to offer more scope for local flexibility, and has therefore enjoyed a much higher level of support among local policy makers.

There is though evidence that many in local government have not yet grasped the scale of the improvements in local services that ministers are expecting, and the extent to which this will require changes in existing structures and processes. The result is likely to be an increasingly differentiated pattern of service provision and, in an era of ‘evidence policy making’, researchers are likely to be called upon to develop methodologies which allow evaluation of the alternative models of service provision that begin to emerge.     

Organizational complexity and participatory innovation: participatory budgeting in local government

ABSTRACT

In this study, we examined the relationship between organizational complexity and the adoption of participatory innovation in German municipal government. We proposed that organizations with more complex organizational structures are more likely to adopt participatory innovation. We investigated municipalities (N = 394) of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and used participatory budgeting as an indicator for innovation. Our results indicate that organizational complexity expressed by functional differentiation has a positive relationship with the occurrence of participatory innovation. The results inform a debate about the value trade-offs that are inherent to the structural design of public organizations.     

Using survey data to study capitalization of local public services

We use surveys in which respondents evaluate local amenities in Norway to compute proxy variables for the quality of local public services as well as other local amenities relevant to location decisions. Average satisfaction reported by the respondents is computed for each amenity and each municipality, adjusted for sample variation in personal characteristics and included as explanatory variables in a cross-section study of house prices. We find that house prices are increasing in satisfaction with cultural activities, health care, care for the elderly and public transportation.     

扩大北京市城市建设资金来源发行城市建设债券势在必行

作者认为,扩大北京市城市建设资金来源,发行城市建设债券势在必行,并对市政债券的用途,发行债券可能带来的问题及需要解决的问题进行了分析。     

Identifying barriers to the application of standardized performance indicators in local government

Abstract

Local governments in many countries are implementing administrative reforms within the framework of New Public Management (NPM) in order to improve the quality and productivity of public services. The use of performance indicators and benchmarking facilitates evaluation of efficiency regarding the provision of such services and favours the acquisition of better practices. The problems that may arise in the introduction of performance indicators in local government mainly concern the consensual design and standardization of indicators for various entities, the method to be used for calculations and the selection of analytical criteria to be applied to the values obtained. In this article, we identify obstacles that may be encountered in achieving a standardized definition of performance indicators within local government and, on the basis of learning from the practical experience of several large city councils in Spain, formulate strategies to resolve these problems, taking note of the viability and real efficacy of the solutions adopted.     

地方政府环境规制失灵的原因及解决途径——以跨界水污染为例

公用地的悲剧及集体行动的困境提供了政府规制的空间。环境规制是政府规制的一项重要内容,政府通过制定相应政策约束市场主体的排污行为来保护环境。但近年来以跨界水污染纠纷为代表的一系列环境规制政策实践表明,地方政府对于环境外部性的规制并不总有效,即环境规制失灵。地方政府环境规制失灵带来许多环境问题,但这并不构成怀疑政府环境规制的充分理由,而应研究如何纠正地方政府环境规制失灵。     

地方政府公共服务全面质量管理探讨

随着全球化和信息化的变革,经济的发展和社会的进步,公众受教育水平、政治参与意识不断提高,对政府的期望值和服务要求也在提高,这种情况下,传统的政府管理已不能适应要求,而将全面质量管理引入到政府公共服务中来,就成为构建服务型政府的一种必要途径。