The Games of Monitoring Shared Local Government Services

Abstract

Shared and multijurisdictional models for service provision in local government are growing in popularity. City managers face new challenges in monitoring and evaluating local government services when their cities do not have sole authority over a shared local shared. As public managers craft strategies to address shared service monitoring, they must take into consideration the characteristics of the shared service arrangement. This paper uses game theory to illustrate two distinct games that managers face in monitoring shared local services under two different service sharing models, one in which the cities have a bilateral interlocal agreement, and one in which the local service is provided through a multi-member public authority. Predictions from these two models are evaluated with data from a sample of cities in the San Francisco Bay Area. This investigation begins to chart the challenge for developing sound theoretical explanations for the evaluation of shared local government services.