Scholars have long regarded government fiscal stress as a crucial factor driving public service outsourcing; however, further investigation is still needed to determine whether service outsourcing in turn helps governments improve fiscal conditions. Public choice theory suggests that outsourcing services can lead to efficiency improvement and cost savings. Nevertheless, transaction costs theory implies that the costs associated with service outsourcing may offset or even outweigh its potential benefits. Moreover, the extent of transaction costs depends on contextual factors such as market competition, bureaucrat support, and government management capacity. Empirically, we employ an instrumental variable estimation approach to examine the impact of service outsourcing on the budget balances and debt levels of U.S. municipalities. We find that service outsourcing improves government fiscal conditions, with contextual factors playing an important role in moderating this effect. Additionally, outsourcing services to different types of contractors has varying implications for government fiscal conditions.

中文翻译：

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服务外包与政府财政状况：市场竞争、官僚支持和管理能力重要吗？

长期以来，学者们一直将政府财政压力视为推动公共服务外包的关键因素。然而，仍需要进一步调查以确定服务外包是否反过来有助于政府改善财政状况。公共选择理论表明，外包服务可以提高效率并节省成本。然而，交易成本理论表明，与服务外包相关的成本可能会抵消甚至超过其潜在收益。此外，交易成本的程度取决于市场竞争、官僚支持和政府管理能力等背景因素。根据经验，我们采用工具变量估计方法来检验服务外包对美国市政当局预算余额和债务水平的影响。我们发现，服务外包改善了政府财政状况，而背景因素在缓和这种影响方面发挥着重要作用。此外，向不同类型的承包商外包服务对政府财政状况有不同的影响。