WP2: NPM and the size of government

The changing role of government – the effect of NPM on government outlays

Results: NPM and the size of Government

Results from WP2 are presented here.

Objectives

To get insight into changes in the role and scope of the public sector using official statistics and national account data
To analyse dominant trends and turning points in government outlays and public employment, and to relate these to the findings of the meat-analysis in WP1
To describe and visualise key longitudinal trends in government’ outlays and public sector employment in EU member states

Work description

NPM emerged partly in response to a growing public sector. Minimisation and downsizing strategies such as liberalization, privatization, and efficiency drives were deployed to make government smaller. This work package will analyse whether this has been the case, and what the effect of such reductions or the absence thereof has been on the performance of government, as established by WP1.
WP1 presents a cross-sectional (all EU partners) and longitudinal analysis of data on government outlays, public accounts, and personal statistics to describe and visualise trends in governments outlays.
The analysis will relate to the development of NPM ideas and reforms to changes in government outlays, to detect trends, critical junctures, and patterns of divergence across EU countries. I will also include recent changes following the financial crisis into the longitudinal analysis.

Work package related output:

Academic publications

Forthcoming

Clifton, J. & Díaz-Fuentes, D. (forthcoming). Evaluating reform at the OECD. In D. Lesage & T. Van de Graaf (eds), Rising powers and multilateral institutions. Routledge, in press.

2013

Alonso, J. M., Clifton, J., & Díaz-Fuentes, D. (2013). Did New Public Management matter? An empirical analysis of the outsourcing and decentralization effects on public sector size. Public Management Review. open-access-version

Clifton, J. & Warner, M. (2013). Marketization, Public Services and the City: The Potential for Polanyian Counter Movements. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society. open-access-version

2011

Clifton, J., Díaz-Fuentes, D., Fernández-Gutiérrez, M. & Revuelta, J. (2011). Is Market-oriented Reform Producing a “two-track” Europe? Evidence from Electricity and Telecommunications. Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, 82(4): 495-512. open-access-version

Clifton, J., Díaz-Fuentes, D., Fernández-Gutiérrez, M. & Revuelta, J. (2011). Bringing Citizens Back. In P. Bance & L. Bernier (eds), Renewing Public Service Regulation. Contemporary Crisis and Renewal of Public Action. Bern: Peter Lang. open-access-version

Clifton, J., Comín, F. & Díaz-Fuentes, D. (2011). From national monopoly to multinational corporation: How regulation shaped the road towards telecommunications internationalisation. Business History 53(2): 761-81. open-access-version

Clifton, J., Lanthier, P. & Schröter, H. (2011). Regulating and deregulating the public utilities 1830–2010. Business History 53(2): 659-72. open-access-version

Further academic publications can be accessed here.