New public management-delivery forms, quality levels and political factors on solid management waste costs in Spanish local governments

Resumen

The New Public Management have been proposed regarding the most appropriate organisation structure to ensure optimum levels of efficiency and quality in the provision of local public services. However, in recent years, contrary opinions have been expressed, suggesting that this type of organisational structure may incur greater costs. The current economic crisis is increasingly affecting the public sector, and requires a stricter control of deficits, and local administrations are not exempt from these requirements. Accordingly, in this paper we propose an evaluation be made of municipal refuse collection and disposal services to determine which forms of management, together with other factors including quality, political aspects and the socio-economic environment, most contribute to reducing costs. The results obtained for the period 2002-2008 show that collective forms of management, and service provision by the local council, have a greater effect in reducing the costs of this service than does externalisation.