ABSTRACT

Local governments are increasingly relying on municipally owned corporations (MOCs) to provide public services. Some describe this development as a rational response to austerity challenges and emphasise the cost-efficiency of MOCs (‘the optimistic view’). Others identify complications and associate MOCs with weak supervision, lack of accountability, and corruption risks (‘the sceptical view’). Hitherto, no studies have analysed these opposing claims on MOCs in the one and same inquiry. We address this gap by focusing on Sweden, which has experienced a dramatic growth in the number of MOCs. We examine the association between the number of MOCs, the business climate, satisfaction with local government, local tax rates, and a corruption index for all 290 Swedish municipalities. Putting the ‘optimistic view’ into doubt, results indicate that municipalities relying heavily on MOCs are associated with more perceived corruption and higher taxes but do not have more satisfied citizens nor a better business climate.

摘要

地方政府越来越依赖市政公司（MOC）来提供公共服务。一些人将这一发展描述为对紧缩挑战的理性回应，并强调 MOC 的成本效益（“乐观观点”）。其他人则发现了复杂性，并将 MOC 与监管不力、缺乏问责制和腐败风险联系起来（持怀疑态度的观点'）。迄今为止，没有研究在同一个调查中分析了这些对 MOC 的相反主张。我们通过关注瑞典来解决这一差距，瑞典的 MOC 数量急剧增长。我们研究了瑞典所有 290 个城市的 MOC 数量、商业环境、对地方政府的满意度、地方税率和腐败指数之间的关联。对“乐观观点”提出质疑，结果表明，严重依赖 MOC 的城市与更多的腐败和更高的税收有关，但没有更满意的公民，也没有更好的商业环境。