One or Two Tiers of Local Government? ? The Cost Effects of a Regional Experiment
This paper evaluates the cost effects of a Finnish regional self-government experiment. The experiment introduced a new intermediate tier of local administration that was given the responsibility to organize 60 per cent of public services. These services include e.g. basic health care, the majority...
Saved in:
Published in | IDEAS Working Paper Series from RePEc |
---|---|
Main Authors | , |
Format | Paper |
Language | English |
Published |
St. Louis
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
01.01.2015
|
Online Access | Get full text |
Cover
Loading…
Summary: | This paper evaluates the cost effects of a Finnish regional self-government experiment. The experiment introduced a new intermediate tier of local administration that was given the responsibility to organize 60 per cent of public services. These services include e.g. basic health care, the majority of social services and secondary education, services that are typically provided by municipalities in Finland. Follow-up reports suggest that the experiment has resulted in massive cost-saving, especially in the social and health sectors. This paper puts previous findings under scrutiny by utilizing a synthetic control method for comparative case studies. Our findings cast serious doubts on the magnitude of the cost savings. |
---|