Did New Public Management Matter? An empirical analysis of the outsourcing and decentralization effects on public sector size

Did New Public Management (NPM) actually lead to a smaller public sector? NPM has been the subject of extensive academic debate as to its successes and failures. However, empirical assessments of whether NPM reached its stated objectives are relatively scarce, mainly due to the difficulty of quantif...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPublic management review Vol. 17; no. 5; pp. 643 - 660
Main Authors Alonso, José M., Clifton, Judith, Díaz-Fuentes, Daniel
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Abingdon Routledge 28.05.2015
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Decentralization
Government spending
New Public Management
Outsourcing
Political science
Public administration
Public expenditure
Public management
Public sector
public sector size
Studies
Subcontracting
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Summary:Did New Public Management (NPM) actually lead to a smaller public sector? NPM has been the subject of extensive academic debate as to its successes and failures. However, empirical assessments of whether NPM reached its stated objectives are relatively scarce, mainly due to the difficulty of quantifying the impact of such reforms. This article attempts to do this, focusing in particular on outsourcing and decentralization. Our findings suggest that government outsourcing did not reduce public sector size, though decentralization policies resulted in a smaller public sector, particularly with regard to government expenditure.
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ISSN:1471-9037
1471-9045
DOI:10.1080/14719037.2013.822532