Switching Dynamics: An Analysis of Changes in Methods of Service Provision at the

This thesis examines methods of service provision at the local government level in the United States. Specifically, we investigate how much cities switch between in-house provision and contracting out from 1982 to 2002, in what pattern or direction the switching occurs, what services are likely to be switched, and what cities are likely to switch. We find that any given city-service is roughly three times more likely to be switched at least once over the time period, as opposed to consistently remaining in-house or contracted out. Summing across cities, more than half of the services they provide had a net increase or decrease in contracting of ten percent or more: some services trended towards in-house provision, some towards contracting, and still others moved back and forth. Services that were most likely to switch had lower fixed costs, were project oriented, had low knowledge barriers, had somewhat visible quality levels, were uninvolved with internal government affairs, and tended to have quality issues that were of medium importance. On a city level, we found that high population contributes to in-house switching, high levels of debt and high median income