Scale Economies in the Administration of Local Government

Bibliographic Data

ID11962734
AuthorsSarah Easton (corresponding author), S A Easton, Norm Thomson, N J Thomson
Year1987
Volume46
Issue3
Pages293-300
Publication date1987-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAustralian Journal of Public Administration (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0313-6647 • E-ISSN: 1467-8500
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1467-8500.1987.tb01442.x
OpenAlexW2150383470
LanguageEN
Citations received2

Part of the argument put forward in support of amalgamating local government authorities is that large councils have advantages of economies of scale. This article quantifies scale economies by a range of expenditure functions. It shows that amalgamation benefits may be as readily achieved through combining functions as in changing geographic boundaries. Furthermore, the study provides clear evidence that larger councils not only offer more services to ratepayers than smaller councils, but receive less support per capita than small councils from state and commonwealth government sources. This latter conclusion has important implications for those charged with the task of administering the scarce funds available through intergovernment financial arrangements

Administration (probate law · Argument (complex analysis · Business · Commonwealth · Economics · Economies of scale · Geography · Government (linguistics · Local government · Management · Microeconomics · Per capita · Political science · Public economics · Scale (ratio · Sociology · State (computer science · Task (project management · Law · Local Government Finance and Decentralization · Public Administration · Taxation and Compliance Studies

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