In: Finance
How do the institutional arrangements of local governments influence the services they provide?
The institutional arrangements of local governments significantly influence the services that they provide. Government productivity is directly related to the institutional structure being used by them for delivering services. It should be noted that many different structural arrangements exist. For instance local government can provide services through their own public employee or they can even contract from services either from other governments or from private firms. Private firms, in many instances, also sell services directly to citizens through exclusive franchise arrangements.
The delivery of services and the productivity of the local government is affected to a large extent by the service delivery model and the institutional arrangement. This is because efficiency with regards to delivery of services by the local governments is highly correlated to the type of institutional arrangement being used. Factors like mis-governance, covert corruption, and inefficiency are all dependent on the type of institutional arrangement being used and implemented. The design of jurisdictions is a clear output of the type of institutional arrangement. Design of jurisdiction refers to the distribution of powers within different levels of government and between different government units to provide services. So theories of governance as well as collective action is influenced by institutional arrangement and all these goes to make the institutional arrangements of local governments to influence the services that they provide.