Outsourcing the provision of traditionally publicly-provided services has become commonplace in most industrialized nations. Despite its prevalence, there still is no consensus in the academic literature on the magnitude (and determinants) of expected cost savings to the government, nor the...

In this article, we examine contract efficiency in a complex contractual environment for services characterized by cost uncertainty and an unknown level of service provision. Using data on water and sewerage network maintenance services contracts from two Melbourne water retailers, we compare...