Political ideology and social services contracting: evidence from a regression discontinuity design

Alonso, Jose M. and Andrews, Rhys 2020. Political ideology and social services contracting: evidence from a regression discontinuity design. Public Administration Review 80 (5) , pp. 743-754. 10.1111/puar.13177 Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

Theoretical perspectives on the ideological influences on government contracting predict that local governments controlled by right‐wing political parties will contract out a higher proportion of services than those controlled by left‐wing parties. However, empirical evidence on the impact of political ideology on contracting out remains inconclusive. To cast new light on this important issue, the authors apply a quasi‐experimental research design to contracting choices in children's social services in English local government. Because local governments in England are largely divided along partisan lines, it is possible to estimate ideological effects using a regression discontinuity design that captures changes in political control at 50 percent of the seats gained in local elections. The regression discontinuity estimates reveal that left‐wing controlled local governments exhibit a marked aversion to private sector involvement in service provision and a clear preference for in‐house service provision. These results are robust to a variety of alternative specifications.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Business (Including Economics)
Publisher:	Wiley
ISSN:	0033-3352
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	14 February 2020
Date of Acceptance:	13 February 2020
Last Modified:	29 Sep 2020 13:03
URI:	http://orca.cf.ac.uk/id/eprint/129657

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