ABSTRACT

Although the theoretical impact of outsourcing on public spending is ambiguous ex-ante, previous cross-country comparisons point towards a positive impact on aggregate. We build a novel database that allows us to explore the association between outsourcing and public spending among Spanish regions between 2002 and 2018. This approach greatly reduces unobserved heterogeneity and limits concerns about bias in the estimates. Our baseline results point towards a positive association between outsourcing and expenditure. However, our analysis also unmasks important divergences among expenditure categories and economic conditions. The results are robust to the inclusion of efficiency indicators and several controls.

摘要

尽管外包对公共支出的理论影响在事前是模棱两可的，但之前的跨国比较表明对总体产生了积极影响。我们建立了一个新的数据库，使我们能够探索 2002 年至 2018 年间西班牙地区外包与公共支出之间的关联。这种方法大大减少了未观察到的异质性，并限制了对估计偏差的担忧。我们的基线结果表明外包和支出之间存在正相关。然而，我们的分析也揭示了支出类别和经济状况之间的重要差异。包含效率指标和若干控制的结果是稳健的。