, it is somewhat surprising that many social scientists have preferred to explain government outsourcing by the pursuit of … economic efficiency. Starting out from different theories, we investigate political explanations of government outsourcing … using a Swedish data set in which outsourcing varies between municipalities and over time, as well as between services. Our …

are less suitable for outsourcing, while network services (public transportation) may be outsourced through public tenders …

We survey the literature on the effects of public sector outsourcing. Guided by theory, we systematically arrange … indicates that public sector outsourcing generally reduces costs without hurting quality. This is clearly the case for … "perfectly contractible services" like garbage collection, but outsourcing often seems to work reasonably well also for some …

are less suitable for outsourcing, while network services (public transportation) may be outsourced through public tenders …

, it is somewhat surprising that many social scientists have preferred to explain government outsourcing by the pursuit of … economic efficiency. Starting out from different theories, we investigate political explanations of government outsourcing … using a Swedish data set in which outsourcing varies between municipalities and over time, as well as between services. Our …