# name
Why do municipalities cooperate to provide local public services? An empirical analysis

# metadata.dc.description.abstract[].value
Intermunicipal cooperation is being increasingly adopted in various countries as a part of local service delivery reforms. This paper draws on survey data from Spain’s municipalities to examine the reasons underpinning the decisions of local governments to engage in intermunicipal cooperation and privatisation. Our empirical analysis indicates that small municipalities prefer to rely on cooperation for reducing costs, while their larger counterparts prefer to privatise the delivery of services. By cooperating, scale economies can be achieved with lower transaction costs and fewer concerns for competition than is the case via private production.

# metadata.dc.publisher[].value
Universitat de Barcelona. Institut de Recerca en Economia Aplicada Regional i Pública

# metadata.dc.rights[].value
cc-by-nc-nd, (c) Bel i Queralt et al., 2011

# metadata.dc.source[].value
Documents de treball (Institut de Recerca en Economia Aplicada Regional i Pública (IREA))

# metadata.dc.title[].value
Why do municipalities cooperate to provide local public services? An empirical analysis