Cost Of Public Services Research Articles

Predicting costs of local public bus transport services through machine learning methods

The present study developed several machine learning-based cost models to predict an efficient total economic cost per vehicle revenue-mile of urban public bus transport. The models were trained on a built-in dataset from 269 transit agencies providing urban services in the United States from 2015 to 2019. A feature selection strategy was implemented, finding that, for each proposed model, a subset of features determined a large impact on unit cost. These “core” features included commercial speed, average salary expenses per employee, vehicle productivity, and fleet ownership cost per vehicle. Machine learning techniques outperformed the linear regression method in terms of predictive power and robustness (understood as the dispersion of predictive power measures over the training sets). Based on SHAP values, the sensitivity analyses showed that the proposed models could be used to predict the impact of changes in some critical features on corresponding unit costs. The results may be useful for: (i) introducing regulatory constraints to the allocation of national public resources to local public bus transport services, aimed at minimizing the resources needed to provide a given level of service; (ii) defining the maximum economic compensation required by firms involved in competitive tendering for the allotment of service concessions, or firms with monopoly rights (by political choice and/or local public ownership); and (iii) improving service contract management and design by identifying key cost drivers of transit services.

Fiscal illusion at the individual level

AbstractThis study uses a survey experiment to test for fiscal illusion—the idea that taxpayers systematically misperceive their tax liabilities and contributions to public services. To date, the voluminous literature on fiscal illusion has not analyzed how better information on personalized total tax liabilities and contributions to public services would influence fiscal preferences. This is the first study to inform participants of their individual fiscal balance sheets comprising all major taxes regularly paid by taxpayers and their allocation to public services, thus comprehensively covering both sides of the fiscal account. This aim is achieved by embedding a novel personalized fiscal calculator in an online survey experiment administered to a representative sample of UK employees. The experiment finds evidence of fiscal illusion: providing personalized fiscal information reduces support for higher taxes and spending and increases support for lower taxes and spending. These findings indicate that taxpayers underestimate both their tax liabilities and the costs of public services.

Far-from-sight and expensive: additional costs of public services in rural areas

ABSTRACT Countries reap numerous benefits from maintaining rural communities. Those advantages, however, come at a cost. We examine the additional costs of public services in rural areas in Israel by considering sparsity, population size and density, distances, and socio-economic status of rural residents. We quantify the effect of these factors and find that the cost of providing public services in rural areas is 39% greater than in cities. Density and other structural differences contribute 20% to the added cost. Economies of scale contribute 8.2%; peripheral location 4.2%; and socio-economic status 2.6%. We show that population density moderates the relation between population size and per-resident expenditure. We also demonstrate that more rural villages in an area increases per-resident expenditure and moderates the relation between distance and expenditure. We discuss policy implications and suggest contributions to a deeper understanding of the rural public economy.

Trend in basic oral treatment needs in relation to taxation of sweets, ice cream, and sugar-sweetened beverages in Finland: a registry-based study.

The aims were to explore the trend in basic oral treatment needs and total operating cost of public dental services (PDS) in relation to total excise tax revenue generated from sugary products during 2011-2020 and to evaluate the impact of tax policy in excise tax revenue of sugary products and average sugar consumption. The study comprised longitudinal data retrieved from Finnish registries during the years 2011-2020. Basic oral treatment needs, and total operating cost of PDS, total excise tax revenue generated from sugary products and average sugar consumed (kg per capita) during the years 2011-2020 were obtained. Simplified panel analyses and sensitivity analyses were used to evaluate the effects of explanatory variables on outcomes. Results: An approximate one EUR 1,000,000 increase in total excise tax revenue generated from sugary products corresponds to a 0.4% increase in total operating cost of PDS. There was a significant positive trend in total operating cost of PDS in Finland over the study period. Similarly, an approximate one EUR 1,000,000 rise in total excise tax revenue corresponds to a 0.2% increase in basic oral treatment needs. Additionally, there was a statistically significant difference in the average excise tax revenue for sugary products between the periods before and after 2017. No change in average sugar consumption was observed despite implementing the new sugar policy. Therefore, it may be worthwhile to reconsider the excise tax on sweets and ice cream as it will significantly increase the total national revenues.

The Specificity and Costs of Public Services in Cemetery Maintenance: A Case Study of Bydgoszcz City

The Specificity and Costs of Public Services in Cemetery Maintenance: A Case Study of Bydgoszcz City

A Hidden Cost: Estimating the Public Service Cost of Poverty in Ireland

Abstract Living life on a poverty income remains commonplace in most modern welfare states. A growing literature highlights the impact on individuals, families, and communities of poverty, costs that are both current to the experience and reflecting its scarring effects. A further cost, one that is frequently hidden, is the cumulative and recurring public expenditure associated with policy responses to poverty. These costs derive from the identification of poverty as a determining factor in the need for, and demand for, a wide range of public services. Estimating the nominal value of these costs, based on an assessment of public expenditure in one EU-15 state, Ireland, is the focus of this article. The findings establish annual costs of between €3bn-€7bn and highlight for all members of society, whether above or below the poverty line, the recurring public expenditure costs incurred by society as a result of poverty.

FEE TARIFFS IN URBAN TRANSPORT AS A SOCIAL POLICY TOOL

The article addresses the issue of public transport charges as an element of social policy. In the first part, the author reviews concepts in the field of social policy. This review provides a basis for further reflection on the current macroeconomic situation. The rise in the cost of living in various areas is one of the most important challenges for households today, and appropriate tariff regulation, which reduces the cost of public services, is a valuable tool for social policy. The aim of the article is to review the current public transport tariff offer in cities (tariffs reduction and preferences) and from the perspective of families. The result of the review is a tabular summary of the applied solutions. Article is based on literature analysis (and document research), analysis of selected case studies and observations.

Operating cost of public services and city size

Many studies have shown that some factors related to city population such as the economies or diseconomies of scale, the variations in the urban pattern linked to the city size, the special conditions of the urban environment in large cities or the changes in the level of service directly impact on the unit operating cost of urban public services. However, research has not been able to isolate their real influence, or even in what direction they work. As a result, the relationship between the city population and the unit operating cost of their public services remains unclear: some authors state that the unit operating cost of public services decreases when the population increases; others that it increases or that it follows a U-shaped function with an optimal city size. For a sample of 4875 Spanish municipalities, the combined analysis of per-capita and per-unit of infrastructure expenditure ratios has allowed us to delve into the central role of two of the aforementioned factors: the level of service and the urban pattern. Thus, for the services of public lighting, water supply, sewage and sanitation, waste collection and disposal, parks and pavement maintenance and street cleaning, higher levels of per-capita spending have been found both in municipalities with under 1000 and above 50 000 residents. However, in the smallest municipalities, the higher level of spending per resident is boosted by a less-compact urban pattern, while in the largest cities, the reason would be a better level of service.

Boldly boring: public banks and public water in the Nordic region

ABSTRACT Public banks in Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark have played a critical role in financing the costs of public water services in the Nordic region for over a century. A pooled banking model, collectively owned and operated by municipal and/or national governments, has allowed public water operators to obtain financing at the lowest possible rates, improving services and protecting their public status. It is not without its challenges, including threats of privatization and commercialization of public water operators and public banks, but this Nordic model has much to offer global debates about public financing of public water services.

Обліковий аспект управління державними фінансами у сфері науки

The article is devoted to the study of key approaches to the creation of a modern mechanism of public finance management in the field of science in Ukraine on the basis of accounting information about the real cost of research and development. The state of financing the sphere of science is analyzed, and negative trends are shown in the structure of public expenditures that do not contribute to the development of the scientific potential of our state. It has been determined that financing of subjects of scientific - technical activities should be carried out on the basis of a reliably determined cost of public services provided by them. It has been substantiated that the cost price as an indicator of the volumes, directions and quality of the use of budgetary funds should become the basis for determining the amount of government funding and establishing a contractual price for research and development. It has been shown that in the conditions of the declared European integration direction of the development of domestic science, Ukrainian subjects of scientific and scientific-technical activities function in the absence of a sectoral normative legal act on the formation of the cost price of scientific research and scientific-technical (experimental) developments. It is shown that in order to implement state policy to enhance domestic scientific and scientific -technical activities and integration into the European Research Area, it is necessary to agree on approaches to mechanisms for the distribution of budgetary funding and develop a unified regulatory framework for planning, accounting for research and development and calculating thе cost price. This will contribute to the formation of unified principles for determining the cost of scientific re and scientific - technical (experimental) developments to create a modern effective mechanism for managing public finances in the field of science.

Impact of urban pattern on operating costs of public services: quantification through the economic weight of services ‘to property’

ABSTRACT Research has shown the existence of strong links between physical configuration of the urban settlements and the economic metabolism of public services. However, this relationship has a different intensity depending on the nature of each service, resting exclusively on the services ‘to property’, that is, those ensuring smooth functionality of the buildings and public spaces. In such services, the operating cost per unit developed area largely depends on representative variables of the urban pattern. For instance, the length of roads per unit developed area impacts the operating costs of linear services, such as street lighting, street cleaning and, together with housing density, on the operating costs of water cycle, waste collection and disposal. Moreover, the maintenance costs of pavements, parks, and gardens are directly proportional to the dimension of the public space. Therefore, the economic weight of services ‘to property’ in the current budget of public administration highlights how vulnerable these budgets are against changes in the urban pattern and determines the expected maximum economic impact of any measure adopted through urban planning. Thus, the main objective of this study is to define, from a theoretical perspective, an indicator representative of the economic weight of the operating cost of the services ‘to property’ upon public administration budgets, capable of delimiting the relationship between the budgets and urban patterns. In addition, to show its utility, this urban-economic indicator has been computed for a sample of medium-sized Spanish cities, showing that, on an average, a quarter of the operating cost of urban public services is directly linked to urban patterns, highlighting the potential impact of urban planning decisions on the economic sustainability of urban settlements.

Public Services to Achieve Good Governance in Indonesia

To meet the various needs of its people, a country will carry out public services so that then goods, services, and various administrative services needed can be fulfilled. This certainly needs to be done because the effectiveness of a government system will be determined mainly by the quality of the implementation of public services from the state to its people. This research will use a qualitative approach with research data sources and previous studies. The study results show that good governance can be achieved through the participation of various holders of positions in government. Then good public service will show that the performance of government management has good quality. The improvements that can be implemented to improve public services include accelerating the formation of public service law, establishing one-stop services, transparency of public service costs, making SOPs, and implementing reforms for employees working in the public service sector.

COORDINATION OF MONETARY AND FISCAL POLICIES DURING CRISIS

Abstract. The global crisis of 2020, caused by the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus disease, has led to decline of the Ukrainian economy and contraction in the welfare of society. To overcome the effects of the crisis, the monetary and fiscal authorities have provided strong incentives, primarily to support the most vulnerable social groups and businesses most affected by quarantine restrictions, as well as to facilitate the financial stability of the banking sector. In conditions of limited government resources, to minimizing the negative effects of the crisis requires the highest efficiency of monetary and fiscal policies, which can only be achieved through proper coordination between monetary and fiscal authorities. The present article examines the peculiarities of the conduct and direction of monetary and fiscal policies before crisis processes arose in Ukraine and identifies the factors that constrain the effectiveness of both policies: shadow economy; permanent budget deficit; excessive public debt service costs; the dominance of non-monetary inflation factors in taking monetary policy decisions. Anti-crisis measures of monetary and fiscal authorities are described and analysed. It was determined that the stock exchange channel of money issuance stood inactive during the crisis, which led to a significant imbalance in the interest rate environment in Ukraine and to the increase in the cost of government borrowing in the domestic market, what was caused by poor coordination between monetary and fiscal policies. It has been established that the dominance of the state in the banking system of Ukraine has a negative impact on bank lending during the crisis, and the government’s program to stimulate lending restrains the reduction of interest rates on new loans through market mechanisms. To ensure post-crisis sustainable economic development, the following measures are advised: ensure a gradual reduction in public debt service costs; make the transition to a countercyclical fiscal policy, which will allow for an expansionary monetary policy; implement measures aimed at reducing the concentration of the state in the banking sector and endorse lending to the real sector of the economy rather than government, through state-owned banks; stimulating lending through monetary rather than fiscal mechanisms. Keywords: monetary policy, fiscal policy, monetary-fiscal policy coordination, economic development, central bank, corona crisis, Ukraine. JEL Classіfіcatіon E52, E62, E63, H12 Formulas: 0; fig.: 4; tabl.: 1; bibl.: 37.

ДОХОДИ МІСЦЕВИХ БЮДЖЕТІВ: ПРОБЛЕМИ ФОРМУВАННЯ

The article describes the competitive policy of the enterprise as a policy aiming at internal and external environment. The subject of competition policy and the main objects are identified, including competitors (current and potential), suppliers, consumers and public authorities. It is established that the means to influence the objects of competition policy are chosen by enterprises during public-private interaction. It is determined that public-private interaction should be understood as the relationship of enterprises and other economic entities with the The article describes the development of local budgets in terms of revenues and expenditures. In particular, it has been defined that non-tax revenues balance the budget and fill the gap for uncollected part of tax revenues. The relationship between the revenues dynamics and the efficiency of local self-government bodies has been investigated. It was found that the structure of tax revenues depends primarily on the number of active economic entities at the local level and the fulfilment of their tax payment obligations. It has been proven that local budgets’ revenue monitoring should go in line with the simultaneous expenditures investigation. The example of the Shabivska United Territorial Community demonstrates that the local budget expenditures cover only the cost of primary public services guaranteed by the state, such as wages, communal services and energy, as well as the population social support, subsidies and current transfers to companies (institutions, organizations). At the same time, implementation of the regional and local development programs of united territorial communities is hardly being financed at all. The key identified issues of local budget revenue generation include the limitation of filling the revenue part of local budgets, dependence on revenues from the state budget, which are not influenced by local self-government bodies, as well as underfunding of the territorial community development programs. There is relatively weak interaction between local authorities and businesses, and regulation of land relations affects the decreasing inflow of tax revenues into local budgets. One of the problems of forming local budgets is related to the unclear distribution of competencies between the central government and local self-government bodies in tax revenue administration. We have defined the course of action which will enable the improvement of the financial support of local self-government, namely: increasing the efficiency of the use of inter-budget transfers, implementing measures for stimulating entrepreneurship, full legalization of the agricultural land rental market and improving land relations, expanding the authorities of local self-government bodies in the area of tax administration.

Improving the methodology for creating a medical service based on the costs of its production

Background. Currently, the multichannel nature of financial flows determines the multivariate methods of payment for medical services, which are also influenced by the type of medical care, conditions, form of its provision, and type of institution. As a result, the cost of a medical service can vary significantly not only in different, but even in one medical organization. The lack of a unified methodological approach puts healthcare organizations in unequal conditions, as a result, public sector medical organizations are forced to seek additional resources to provide medical care to the population that meets the standards. None of the current methods for determining the cost of a medical service reflects its actual cost, since it does not take into account the structure of production costs.The aim. To improve the methodology for the formation of the cost of public services in the health care system, taking into account their resource intensity.Materials and methods. The study included the analysis of the forms of state statistical observation of medical organizations of the Irkutsk region, reports of the federal and regional accounting chambers, industry regulations, materials of scientific periodicals, conferences, monographic studies, including on the Internet; comparison of the cost of medical services in various medical organizations of the Irkutsk region; modeling methods for calculating the cost of medical services using the Cobb – Douglas production function.Results. A unified classification of medical services based on their resource intensity and an improved method of forming the cost of medical services based on the Cobb – Douglas production function are proposed, revealing the dependence of the volume of production on two factors of production – capital and labor; the cost of medical services was calculated using the example of real services provided in one of the medical organizations of the public health sector of the Irkutsk region.Conclusions. The proposed method for determining the cost of a medical service based on its resource intensity makes it possible to determine the real cost of a medical service, the full reimbursement of which will increase the financial stability of medical organizations in the public sector, which will be reflected in the improvement of their material and technical base and, as a result, will increase the quality of medical services.

Limits of Negotiable Developer Obligations

Many local authorities apply public value capture on new developments to cover the costs of additional public services. The development obligations (DO) they apply can be either negotiable (NDO) or non-negotiable (NNDO). This article examines the limits of NDOs by comparing three national case studies according to the basic principles of proportionality, causality, connection, and lack of transparency for developers. Well-developed building land models and a delineation of applicable cost types offer more transparency for the developer and enable the municipal authorities to establish a fairer distribution of burdens based on actual benefit.

Asymmetric information and excess budget: the influence of performance-based budgeting on budgetary slack in US states

ABSTRACT This paper examines whether the legislative adoption of performance-based budgeting (PBB) limits budgetary slack. Based on the model of slack-maximizing bureaucracy, we predict that the enactment of PBB laws is likely to shore up the legislature’s ability to control budgetary slack. By providing more information about the production costs of public services to the legislature as budget sponsors, the legislative adoption of PBB can mitigate the information asymmetry between bureaucrats and the legislature, which leads to more effective control of budgetary slack by budget sponsors. In US states, we document that the budgetary slack is reduced after a state legislature legally mandates the use of performance information in the budgetary deliberation. This finding suggests that the legislative adoption of PBB facilitates the budget sponsors’ use of prior-period budgetary slack information to reduce current-period slack, consistent with the notion of PBB as analytic tools for budget sponsors.

IMPROVEMENT OF MECHANISMS FOR STATE MANAGEMENT OF CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT OF QUALITY OF PROVISION OF MEDICAL SERVICES IN UKRAINE

Objective. To substantiate theoretical and methodological principles, develop scientific and practical recommendations for state management of medical services in Ukraine.
 Materials and methods. There were used such research methods as synthesis, analysis, scientific abstraction when specifying the categorical-conceptual framework of research; system structural analysis when developing the conceptual principles of state regulation of the provision of medical services of appropriate quality and accessibility; discriminant analysis when assessing the cost of public health services in Ukraine.
 Results. An approach to the formation of a system to improve the efficiency and quality of medical services in Ukraine has been developed. The system of continuous improvement of the quality of medical services has been developed, which combines financial and economic calculations for provided medical services with screening examination of the technology of medical and diagnostic process according to the models of medical services and allows to build a hierarchical management system for financing and quality of medical services.
 Conclusions. The has been proposed the method of payment for medical services according to the models of simple and complex medical services, which is the most promising for use in conditions of limited financial resources and involves compliance with the following rules.

The costs of corporatization: Analysing the effects of forms of governance

AbstractPublic corporations have been constantly in the spotlight, with some commentators arguing that they can help governments provide better public services, and others insisting that their governance is simply too complex. Despite this ongoing debate, few studies have researched public corporation performance. The present study offers empirical evidence of the effects of various forms of corporatization on public service costs. In particular, it examines public service costs incurred under four different forms of governance: public agencies, public corporations, mixed public corporations with minority public ownership, and mixed public corporations with majority public ownership. The analysis considers eight types of public services in 874 Spanish municipalities between 2014 and 2017. The empirical results show that services provided by public corporations are no less costly than those provided by public agencies. In fact, the services offered by mixed corporations with government majorities tend to cost more than those provided by public agencies.

ДЕРЖАВНА ЗАБОРГОВАНІСТЬ ЯК ЗАГРОЗА ЕКОНОМІЧНІЙ БЕЗПЕЦІ КРАЇНИ

The article is devoted to the analysis of absolute and relative indicators of Ukraine’s public debt in order to identify threats to its economic security. A critical analysis of the “Guidelines for calculating the level of economic security of Ukraine” in terms of assessing external threats and substantiated proposals for their improvement. The dynamics of total public debt in general and external debt, in particular, has been specially studied; the ratio of public debt to GDP and the state budget; public debt service costs. Particular attention is paid to the IMF composite index, which allows to assess the adequacy of official gold and foreign exchange reserves to cover the needs of external debt. According to the analysis, most of Ukraine’s public debt indicators exceed the established thresholds, which poses a real threat to the country’s economic security. If the ratio of public debt to GDP in recent years has been reduced to the upper limit of the safe level, the parameters of the ratio of external debt to the state budget and the share of expenditures on servicing government debt are twice the Ukrainian values. This situation can create a problem with timely repayment of debts, which will reduce the confidence of creditors and increase the cost of new borrowing and will push Ukraine to enter the debt spiral. This necessitates the development of a system of special measures to stabilize the situation both by reducing debt and maintenance costs, and by increasing state budget revenues. At the same time, such an important indicator as the composite index of the IMF for the last 6 years has not only seen a positive trend, but also the achievement (and even a slight excess) of the normative value. This is evidence of the potential of the Ukrainian economy to solve the problem of debt without particularly negative consequences, both internal and external.