Brazilian Municipal Expenditure and Scale Economies: Evidence from São Paulo

Advocates of municipal mergers usually claim that considerable economies of scale flow from council consolidations, which result in larger local government organizations. We examined whether scale economies are present in municipal outlays by investigating the expenditure of 644 São Paulo municipal areas using data over the period 2005 to 2017. We find evidence that considerable scale economies characterize municipal expenditure in São Paulo. However, given that population size and population density are positively correlated, it is critical to determine whether or not the influence of population on municipal expenditure arises because of disparities in density. We find that when São Paulo municipalities are decomposed into sub-categories based on different population densities, evidence in favour of scale economies persists. Thus, municipal mergers in the state of São Paulo may result in lower per capita expenditure.

The Truth about Honesty in the Nonprofit Sector

The nonprofit sector aims to provide services with a public benefit, but how honest is it? Since the nonprofit sector relies on fundraising efforts to support its administration and program costs, and since poor financial performance can scare potential contributors away, nonprofit organizations have an incentive to appear fiscally healthy regardless of their true condition. We examine the factors associated with the honesty of organizations in the nonprofit sector using Benford’s Law, which tests for abnormalities in data that result from intentional falsification. Using the 990 tax filings for 51,010 nonprofits in the United States from 2012 and 2013, we find evidence of problems in the accuracy of their financial reporting. Those organizations with more external users of their financial information tend to conform more closely with Benford’s Law, suggesting more external monitoring of non-profit organizations may decrease the likelihood of misreported financial information.

Smart Principles and Smart Principals: Smart Mechanism to Enhance Street-Level Accountability

This article presents a novel theoretical approach that aims to enhance the accountability of street-level bureaucrats. The authors conceptualize changes and reforms in and around the public sector as a smart mechanism that is composed of two key dimensions; a) smart principles (i.e., institutions and technological tools that support citizen participation), and b) smart principals (i.e., citizens who adopt those smart principles in monitoring and evaluating street-level agents’ behaviors). Then the authors suggest a theoretical framework that explains how applying the smart mechanism can limit deviant behaviors of street-level bureaucrats and contribute to enhancing street-level accountability.

Linking Community Development and Disaster Resiliency: An Exploratory Study of County Government Agencies in Central Florida

Building community resiliency requires input on community development initiatives from a variety of functional units of a local government. There is little evidence, however, of whether the types of agencies that are responsible for disaster planning and mitigation are involved in community development activities for the purpose of improving community resiliency. This exploratory study examines agency involvement in community development subfields, designing community development tools, and participation in community planning processes for the purposes of building community resiliency. The results of mean-t tests, based on data collected from an original survey of Central Florida (USA) county governments, provides preliminary evidence of differences between planning agencies and agencies that are focused on operations and logistics. The findings suggest local governments should consider roles and integration mechanisms to ensure participation of agencies in community development efforts to improve disaster resiliency.

Fundraising for Government: Unpacking the Structure and Relationship of Government-Supporting Nonprofit Partnerships

Government-supporting nonprofits (GSNs) are 501(c)(3) organizations established in connection with a government agency to fundraise and support their mission. To date, little is known about the structural and substantive relationships that occur in this exclusive partnership. Applying the GSN model to public education in Florida, this study looks at data collected from 18 local education foundations (LEFs) and their school district partners. Interviews suggest that different structural models influence the relationships between the two organizations along the following dimensions: attention, successive engagement, resource infusion, and organizational identity. Even though LEFs exist to support their school district, they also aim to establish a separate identity to be able to fundraise and carry out a more community-based role. Through this research, a framework is proposed for studying the structural and partnership dimensions of government-supporting nonprofits. We conclude with a discussion on future research and relevant considerations for government agencies with a supporting nonprofit.

Budgeters’ Perceptions of the Scope, Support, and Patterns of Implementation of Performance Budgeting in Texas Cities

This study views performance budgeting as a budget innovation, and examines how this innovation tool has been diffused across the largest cities in the State of Texas, emphasizing the scope and patterns of implementation of this innovation in the context of a state with comprehensive performance budgeting legislation. The study also reports the perceptions of city budgeters vis-à-vis the external and internal factors that may support the use of performance measures in budgeting at the local level, using survey data from a sample of Texas cities with population over 50,000. The results of the study reveal that although performance laws set up the general framework for performance budgeting, they do not seem to generate a uniform pattern of implementation. Cities in our sample are found at different stages of performance budgeting implementation, and have developed different patterns of budgetary practices.

Interorganizational Information Sharing: Collaboration during Cybersecurity Threats

Information sharing is examined to determine if the willingness to share information relates to the willingness to collaborate in interorganizational actions used to address cybersecurity threats. This study employs ANOVA by placing 85 organizational representatives that participated in a cyber terrorism training exercise into two categories: higher versus lower willingness to share information. The dependent measures in this study are proxies for collaboration measured by willingness to seek assistance from other organizations and willingness to offer assistance to other organizations. There is a significant statistical difference between the two categorizations of organizational representatives. The category that had a lower tendency to share information also had a lower willingness to collaborate with other organizations. This research shows that sharing information is critical when collaborative interorganizational action is required to face cybersecurity threats. Managers of organizations that respond to cybersecurity threats should promote the tendency to share information with other organizations that have the resources to aid in addressing the threat. Organizations involved in cybersecurity threats that are willing to share information are more willing to participate in integrative interorganizational efforts. This study includes a sample of actual decision makers of organizations that would handle cybersecurity attacks in their community. In this study, we demonstrate the role of information sharing for enhancing

Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is: The Influence of Designated Funding Upon Strategic Implementation in US Municipalities

Prior to implementation of strategic initiatives, US municipalities must decide to either designate implementation funding or ask the implementing agency to do so within its existing resources. Although limited empirical evidence indicates that designating implementation funds universally improves implementation outcomes, strategic management scholars and practitioners have increasingly endorsed contingent approaches adapted to varying environmental, organizational, and project characteristics. This conflict within theory and practice requires further examination to discern whether designated implementation funding can be considered a universal best practice or effective only in particular contexts. By surveying municipal leaders from 43 U.S. municipalities about the adequacy of implementation funding regarding 207 of their strategic initiatives, this study finds that designating implementation funds is crucial to the success of all strategic initiatives and therefore should not be applied in a contingent manner; posing a formidable challenge to contingent theories of strategic implementation and existing practices of municipal strategic management.

When Government Transparency Risks Reinforcing Racist Stereotypes and Residential Segregation

Transparency requires that online government information be both numerically accurate and ‘cognitively accessible’ to members of the public. This paper provides a normative critique of various crime-data presentation formats informed by the literature on cognitive biases with regard to quantitative information. The analysis finds that interactive crime maps often apply (1) relative scaling, (2) arbitrary rate-magnification, (3) context-free absolute numbers, (4) ratios of small proportions, and (5) wrong baselines of comparison. These formats risk portraying non-White and/or Hispanic urban areas as ‘high crime’ in absolute rather than relative terms. This may discourage cautious (White) individuals from visiting, doing business in, or relocating to such neighborhoods, thus reinforcing residential segregation. Proportional scaling may provide an easy solution: In 2017, New York City emerges as a safe zone with regard to violent crime. Proportional scaling is easy to implement and it may help prevent inadvertent reinforcement of racist stereotypes and residential segregation.