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Population Changes in Swedish Municipalities. What are the Reported Economic Impacts on Fee Financed Local Technical Services?

Fjertorp, Jonas LU (2014) In Scandinavian Journal of Public Administration 18(2). p.49-62
Abstract
Swedish local governments are responsible for providing public services to their residents. Population changes require varying considerations and responses. Population growth demands the extension of the local government service capacity, for example to provide technical services. Even a declining population is demanding because of the difficulties adjusting the size of the service capacity in an economically sustainable way. This paper seeks to clarify the economic impacts of population changes on technical services in Swedish local municipalities. Two technical sectors are compared: waste operations, and water and wastewater operations. Potential impacts are identified in existing literature. A dataset is analyzed using regression... (More)
Swedish local governments are responsible for providing public services to their residents. Population changes require varying considerations and responses. Population growth demands the extension of the local government service capacity, for example to provide technical services. Even a declining population is demanding because of the difficulties adjusting the size of the service capacity in an economically sustainable way. This paper seeks to clarify the economic impacts of population changes on technical services in Swedish local municipalities. Two technical sectors are compared: waste operations, and water and wastewater operations. Potential impacts are identified in existing literature. A dataset is analyzed using regression analysis. The results suggest that there are no clear reported economic impacts of population changes for waste operations. Waste operations seem to be able to adapt to existing population changes in an economically sustainable manner. On the other hand, the results show that there are clear economic impacts connected to population changes for water and wastewater operations. Costs and user fee levels are lower in municipalities with population growth, compared to municipalities with a declining population. However, the investment expenditure per connected capita increases greatly in municipalities with population growth. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
economic impact, Population change, technical service, municipality, fee
in
Scandinavian Journal of Public Administration
volume
18
issue
2
pages
49 - 62
publisher
University of Gothenburg, School of Public Administration
ISSN
2001-7405
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
ccb7207b-0285-4707-bea1-fd9f9fc96e3a (old id 4926661)
alternative location
http://ojs.ub.gu.se/ojs/index.php/sjpa/article/view/1675
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 13:35:04
date last changed
2018-11-21 20:17:40
@article{ccb7207b-0285-4707-bea1-fd9f9fc96e3a,
  abstract     = {{Swedish local governments are responsible for providing public services to their residents. Population changes require varying considerations and responses. Population growth demands the extension of the local government service capacity, for example to provide technical services. Even a declining population is demanding because of the difficulties adjusting the size of the service capacity in an economically sustainable way. This paper seeks to clarify the economic impacts of population changes on technical services in Swedish local municipalities. Two technical sectors are compared: waste operations, and water and wastewater operations. Potential impacts are identified in existing literature. A dataset is analyzed using regression analysis. The results suggest that there are no clear reported economic impacts of population changes for waste operations. Waste operations seem to be able to adapt to existing population changes in an economically sustainable manner. On the other hand, the results show that there are clear economic impacts connected to population changes for water and wastewater operations. Costs and user fee levels are lower in municipalities with population growth, compared to municipalities with a declining population. However, the investment expenditure per connected capita increases greatly in municipalities with population growth.}},
  author       = {{Fjertorp, Jonas}},
  issn         = {{2001-7405}},
  keywords     = {{economic impact; Population change; technical service; municipality; fee}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{2}},
  pages        = {{49--62}},
  publisher    = {{University of Gothenburg, School of Public Administration}},
  series       = {{Scandinavian Journal of Public Administration}},
  title        = {{Population Changes in Swedish Municipalities. What are the Reported Economic Impacts on Fee Financed Local Technical Services?}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/3461414/4937101.pdf}},
  volume       = {{18}},
  year         = {{2014}},
}