EPISTEMIC COMMUNITIES AND SERVICE DELIVERY CHOICES IN SPANISH MUNICIPAL ADMINISTRATIONS

(ProQuest: . denotes formulae omitted.)IntroductionThere is a growing body of literature regarding the determinants of the production and delivery of local public services (Brown and Potoski 2003a, Joassart-Marcelli and Musso 2005, Lamothe et al. 2008). Despite their increasing number, the studies undertaken in this field display little consensus on which factors most strongly influence the choice of mechanisms by local governments for public service provision. The current debate concerns the options available to local governments, i.e. whether to opt for the direct provision of certain public services or to choose between alternative mechanisms, such as the creation of special - purpose bodies dependent on the local administration, or contracting services out to external agents, as in the 'make or buy dilemma' (Leiblein et al. 2002, Lamothe et al. 2008). In the context of this literature, our study aims to add to it further by introducing the role of epistemic communities, an approach that fits neatly in the 'make or buy' debate. However, in addition to the variables already tested (those variables that we use as controls) we also concentrate on those variables that can illustrate the presence of epistemic communities and their role in public-service delivery choices.The increasing amount of literature on the role played by epistemic communities in the framing of public policies has defined these communities as networks of recognized experts in a specific knowledge field; their tasks are directed towards contributing to the collective debate on subjects related to their field of knowledge, recommending policies and identifying key points for possible negotiation (see, among other authors, Haas 1992, Radaelli 1995, Jordana and Levi-Faur 2004). "It is the prestige, training and reputation of its members that generate the sort of expertise valued by political elites" (Haas 1992: 17) and which serve to reduce the uncertainty present in the elaboration, implementation and reform of public policies, which are rapidly becoming more complex (Marier 2008). Communities of specialists play a decisive role in promoting or rejecting innovations and reforms in the field of public policy, since they have t he explicit objective of influencing the decisions taken by public authorities (Toke 1999, Radaelli 2000). Moreover, they can also use their expert knowledge to create uncertainty to increase the strategic advantage of their purposes (Morin 2014). Even if there is no clear consensus on how to identify an epistemic community, there is some evidence that highlights the existence of such articulated groups in local governments around different sectoral areas (related to the policy field of intervention). This paper refers to the incidence of two sectoral communities on the selection of particular service-provision mechanisms controlling for other specific variables highlighted by the literature.In addition to epistemic communities, there are other variables that affect the choice of public - service delivery formulas. Both theoretical and empirical evidence (Ferris and Graddy 1986, Bel and Fageda 2007, Levin and Tadelis 2010, Gonzalez-Gomez et al. 2011) indicate that the characteristics of the service are a central factor in choosing a mechanism for provision. In other words, certain services are better catered for being delivered by a particular management formula. Such suitability has tended to be associated, according to arguments from the field of economics and more specifically from transaction costs theory, with the specificity of the service and with the difficulty in measuring it (Brown and Potoski 2003a). Our study recognizes the explanatory weight of the nature of the service but it assumes it is constant between the distinct town councils that provide them.Other studies, in evaluating the decision regarding the management formulas for public service provision, award explanatory power to variables such as the capacities and management structure of the local government or its position in the market of suppliers (Lamothe et al. …