Fiscal stress and the production of public safety: A distance function approach

doi:10.1016/0047-2727(94)01445-T

Journal of Public Economics

Volume 57, Issue 2, June 1995, Pages 277-296

https://doi.org/10.1016/0047-2727(94)01445-T Get rights and content

Abstract

Faced with increasing crime rates, but nonincreasing budgets, local governments are seeking cost saving means of providing public safety. This paper investigates a bureaucracy's response to fiscal stress as well as its ability to efficiently substitute civilian for uniformed personnel. Exploiting duality theory, a distance function is used to model technology, retrieve information concerning substitutability and shadow prices of personnel, and test for cost minimization. Morishima elasticities are adopted to allow for asymmetry in substitution between types of personnel. It is found that the more adverse the public safety environment and budgetary condition, the more efficiently resources are allocated.

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Fiscal stress and the production of public safety: A distance function approach

Abstract

Journal of Public Economics

Journal of Public Economics

Confidence intervals for elasticity estimators in translog models

Review of Economics and Statistics

The Morishima elasticity of substitution: Symmetry, consistency, separability, and its relationship to the Hicks and Allen elasticity

Review of Economic Studies

Will the real elasticity please stand up?

American Economic Review

Will the real elasticity please stand up? (A comparison of the Allen/Uzawa and Morishima elasticities)

The rising cost of local public services: Some evidence and reflections

National Tax Journal

The Multi-output translog production cost function: The case of law enforcement agencies

The jackknife, the bootstrap and other resampling plans