The Disparity Between Urban andRural Areas in Citizen Satisfaction with Local Public Services

Abstract

The disparities in access to public assistances between rural and urban areas are analyzed in this study, corresponding to the intensity in which the constructs are related to expected quality, perceived quality and perceived value as influential factors in citizen satisfaction and loyalty. In Guayaquil, a survey is carried out at the household level, 428 valid questionnaires are obtained in the rural area of Tenguel and 521 Valid questionnaires in the urban area of Tarqui, applyingto the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). The research used a Structural Equation model (SEM) to evaluate the hypotheses raised, if they observe significant differences in citizen perception between inhabitants of urban and rural areas about the quality of community services, this as a determining cause in the level of citizen satisfaction and loyalty to choose their municipal authorities. The multigroup analysis allowed to identify inequalities in the observation of the quality of municipal or local communityassistances between rural and urban areas; the findings are considered to local public administrators for the design of public policy aimed at improving levels of citizen satisfaction and loyalty.