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The Efficiency of Local Service Delivery: The Czech Republic and Slovakia

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Evaluating Reforms of Local Public and Social Services in Europe

Abstract

The chapter assesses selected dimensions of the efficiency of local service delivery in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The findings indicate that externalisation does not deliver the expected results and that there are multiple factors behind this—especially limited competition and limited quality of contract management. The fact that very good results are achieved via inter-municipal cooperation has been a particularly important finding. The subsequent analysis has produced slightly contradictory results—the lowest waste management cost values are in municipalities with no competing waste management company in the neighbouring municipalities. The last part proposes that the main factor determining waste management costs is the number of inhabitants. It also provides some interesting results—for example, economies of scale have not been confirmed as an important cost factor.

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Correspondence to Jana Soukopová .

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Soukopová, J., Meričková, B.M., Nemec, J. (2018). The Efficiency of Local Service Delivery: The Czech Republic and Slovakia. In: Koprić, I., Wollmann, H., Marcou, G. (eds) Evaluating Reforms of Local Public and Social Services in Europe. Governance and Public Management. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61091-7_10

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