Abstract

An important question underlying government policies that aim to introduce competition from the private sector into public service markets, is whether the presence of privately managed service providers affects the performance of public providers. On the one side, neoclassical economic theory would predict that competition from the private sector has a positive effect on public service performance. However, on the other side, institutional theories would predict a negative, or no effect at all. Using a 9-year panel data set of New Jersey schools, we find some evidence for both models. In most cases, the presence of privately managed charter schools is associated with an increase in public school performance, but the expansion of charter schools is associated with a decrease in performance. Our findings suggest that the effects of private competitors on public service performance are diverse and that multiple mechanisms can be at play simultaneously.

摘要

旨在将私营部门的竞争引入公共服务市场的政府政策的一个重要问题是，私人管理的服务提供者的存在是否会影响公共提供者的绩效。一方面，新古典经济学理论预测来自私营部门的竞争对公共服务绩效有积极影响。然而，另一方面，制度理论会预测负面影响，或者根本没有影响。使用新泽西州学校的 9 年面板数据集，我们发现了两种模型的一些证据。在大多数情况下，私立特许学校的存在与公立学校表现的提高有关，但特许学校的扩张与下降有关在性能上。我们的研究结果表明，私人竞争者对公共服务绩效的影响是多种多样的，并且多种机制可以同时发挥作用。