In member states of the European Union, the current VAT treatment of activities of public authorities creates significant distortions in their decisionmaking between public provision and contracting out of public services. In several EU-member states, a refund of VAT to local governments...

Municipalities may have various motives for decisions on the mode of their task execution. Empirical studies – based on both public choice and transaction costs theory - have not yet provided a fully comprehensive explanation for municipal contracting out decisions. Therefore, we held...

In the Netherlands, the USA and Australia public funding has promoted parental choice by introducing a voucher for child care, where parents are free to choose the provider. The policy experiments in these three countries and the outcomes provide useful information about the consequences of...