Scale Economy in Local Government: Theory, Concept and Debates

Yıl 2019, Cilt: 24 Sayı: 95, 163 - 192, 30.09.2019

Refik Yaslıkaya

https://doi.org/10.36484/liberal.612182

Cited By: 1

Öz

The scale economy thesis is one of the leading motives of the reforms that seek more economic local public services on the basis of the local government size. In case of the existence of scale economies, average costs of the output can be reduced by means of increasing the inputs in a concrete local service’s production as long as optimal size of service area isn’t exceeded. However, the usage of the scale economy thesis in the literature of local government isn’t grounded over this scenario. It is built through the expectation of saving on the costs by means of increasing local authority’s size as a geographical area or population. In other words, the scale economy which is a thesis substantially belonging to the theory of the firm is used in a decontextualized way in the area of local governments. With snatching the output from production and defining it via population, gains which arise from the size of local authority or service capacity are also called as scale gains. The first aim is being able to frame the concepts correctly. Secondly, it is emphasized that scale gains cannot be a valid approach for the whole range of local service and local government sizes. Providing findings of many field research, empirical evidences of the relationship between size and efficiency are also presented. These evidences show that the expectation of cost savings originating from the scale economy doesn’t correspond in all cases.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Scale Economy, Scope Economy, Optimum Size, Reform in Local Governments

Yerel Yönetimlerde Ölçek Ekonomisi: Teori, Kavram ve Tartışmalar

Öz

Ölçek
ekonomisi tezi, yerel kamu hizmetlerini daha ekonomik sunabilmeyi, yerel
yönetim büyüklüğünde arayan reformların temel gerekçelerinden biridir. Ölçek
ekonomilerinin varlığı halinde, somut bir yerel hizmetin üretimindeki girdileri
arttırmak suretiyle, çıktının marjinal maliyetleri düşürülebilir. Ancak, ölçek ekonomisi
tezinin yerel yönetim literatüründeki kullanımı, bu senaryo üzerinden
temellendirilmez. Yerel otoritenin büyüklüğünün, coğrafi alan ya da nüfus
olarak arttırılması suretiyle, maliyetlerde tasarruf sağlama beklentisi üzerinden
kurgulanır. Başka bir deyişle, esasen firma teorisine ait bir tez olan ölçek
ekonomisi, yerel yönetimler alanında bağlamından koparılmak suretiyle
kullanılır. Çıktının üretimden koparılıp, nüfus üzerinden tanımlanması yanında,
yerel otoritenin boyutundan ya da hizmet sunma kapasitesinden kaynaklanan
kazançlar da ölçek kazançları olarak adlandırılır. Bu çalışmanın ilk amacı
kavramları doğru bir çerçeveye oturtabilmektir. İkinci olarak ölçek
kazançlarının tüm yerel hizmet yelpazesi ve tüm yerel yönetim büyüklükleri için
geçerli bir yaklaşım olamayacağı vurgulanmıştır. Ayrıca, yerel yönetimlerde
ölçek ekonomisi tezine yönelik pek çok alan araştırmasının bulgularına çalışma
içinde yer verilerek, büyüklük ve verimlilik ilişkisinin deneysel kanıtları
ortaya konmaya çalışılmıştır. Bu kanıtlar, ölçek ekonomisi kaynaklı maliyet
tasarrufları beklentisinin her durumda karşılığı olmadığını göstermektedir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Ölçek ekonomisi, kapsam ekonomisi, optimum büyüklük, yerel yönetimde reform

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