Municipally owned corporations in Sweden : A cautionary tale
(2023) In Public Money and Management- Abstract
IMPACT: Municipally owned corporations (MOCs) exist across the globe and have become increasingly common. They are motivated by the need for flexibility, a desire to cut costs and to increase efficiency. This article summarizes Swedish experiences with MOCs. It shows that the stated motivations are not necessarily wrong, but that relying heavily on MOCs may have unintended and adverse side-effects. Such side-effects include blurring the role of local politicians, increasing corruption risks and giving rise to complex organizational structures within local governments. Ultimately, transparency and democratic accountability may suffer because of an excessive reliance on MOCs. In particular, councillors, mayors and MOC chief executive... (More)
IMPACT: Municipally owned corporations (MOCs) exist across the globe and have become increasingly common. They are motivated by the need for flexibility, a desire to cut costs and to increase efficiency. This article summarizes Swedish experiences with MOCs. It shows that the stated motivations are not necessarily wrong, but that relying heavily on MOCs may have unintended and adverse side-effects. Such side-effects include blurring the role of local politicians, increasing corruption risks and giving rise to complex organizational structures within local governments. Ultimately, transparency and democratic accountability may suffer because of an excessive reliance on MOCs. In particular, councillors, mayors and MOC chief executive officers will benefit from reading these results, and ask themselves what kind of MOCs their municipality should operate, how many MOCs are appropriate to run, and also how members of MOC boards need to be educated.
(Less)
- author
- Bergh, Andreas LU and Erlingsson, Gissur LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2023
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- in press
- subject
- keywords
- Accountability, corruption, delegation, local government, municipally owned corporations, New Public Management, principal–agent problems, Sweden
- in
- Public Money and Management
- publisher
- Taylor & Francis
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85174832759
- ISSN
- 0954-0962
- DOI
- 10.1080/09540962.2023.2270272
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
- id
- c3b95737-2a5e-40e3-ab6a-202a5dce940c
- date added to LUP
- 2023-12-14 15:44:07
- date last changed
- 2023-12-14 15:45:51
@article{c3b95737-2a5e-40e3-ab6a-202a5dce940c, abstract = {{<p>IMPACT: Municipally owned corporations (MOCs) exist across the globe and have become increasingly common. They are motivated by the need for flexibility, a desire to cut costs and to increase efficiency. This article summarizes Swedish experiences with MOCs. It shows that the stated motivations are not necessarily wrong, but that relying heavily on MOCs may have unintended and adverse side-effects. Such side-effects include blurring the role of local politicians, increasing corruption risks and giving rise to complex organizational structures within local governments. Ultimately, transparency and democratic accountability may suffer because of an excessive reliance on MOCs. In particular, councillors, mayors and MOC chief executive officers will benefit from reading these results, and ask themselves what kind of MOCs their municipality should operate, how many MOCs are appropriate to run, and also how members of MOC boards need to be educated.</p>}}, author = {{Bergh, Andreas and Erlingsson, Gissur}}, issn = {{0954-0962}}, keywords = {{Accountability; corruption; delegation; local government; municipally owned corporations; New Public Management; principal–agent problems; Sweden}}, language = {{eng}}, publisher = {{Taylor & Francis}}, series = {{Public Money and Management}}, title = {{Municipally owned corporations in Sweden : A cautionary tale}}, url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09540962.2023.2270272}}, doi = {{10.1080/09540962.2023.2270272}}, year = {{2023}}, }