Browsing by Subject "public service provision"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
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    Defining and Measuring Coproduction: Deriving Lessons from Practicing Local Government Managers
    (Public Administration Review, 2022) Brudney, Jeffrey; Cheng, Yuan (Daniel); Lucas, Meijs
    Following a lapse in scholarly attention, coproduction, the joint production of services by government officials and citizens, has re-emerged as an important topic. However, the field lacks information on broad parameters of coproduction implementation and how public managers view coproduction. To address the lacuna, this study examines patterns of implementation of coproduction in a national sample of municipalities and counties in the U.S. According to their chief administrators, nearly half these governments have implemented one or more stages of coproduction, although co-delivery of services occurs least often. Empirical analysis suggests that the implementation of coproduction, as perceived by local government managers, can be measured along a unidimensional scale and that this measurement scale is robust across different subgroups. We also find that local governments that have larger population, provide more services, have more professional forms of administration, and are located in the western U.S. more often implement elements of coproduction.
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    Nonprofit Density and Distributional Equity in Public Service Provision: Exploring Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Public Park Access across U.S. Cities
    (Public Administration Review, 2021) Cheng, Yuan (Daniel); Yang, Lang (Kate); Shuyi, Deng
    Existing research on the distributional impacts of nonprofits and philanthropy focuses on how different groups directly benefit from nonprofit service providers. Given the increasing roles nonprofits play in public service provision and urban governance, it is critical to examine how the nonprofit sector may influence the distribution of public services. Combining the literature from urban affairs and nonprofit studies, we propose a theoretical framework to articulate various pathways through which communities with a larger nonprofit sector may create favorable conditions for public services to be distributed to certain racial/ethnic groups. We further test this framework using a unique geospatial dataset of public park access by different racial/ethnic groups in 2,392 U.S. cities. Our findings indicate that communities with a higher density of park-supporting nonprofits generate better park access for all racial/ethnic groups. However, more benefits accrue to whites than to other racial/ethnic groups.