Analyses of municipalities and county councils

The Government Committee of Inquiry that built up the Local Government Database (LGDB) also carried out a number of key ratio-based analyses. These are published here along with analyses produced by the new Council [they all require Acrobat Reader]:

 Size as a problem in local government finances
- At the request of the Committee on Public Sector Responsibilities the Council has analysed the question of whether small municipalities have more difficulties than other municipalities in running cost-effective operations. When adjustments have been made for the effects of other cost-influencing factors than municipality size, there are no or very small cost differences left between municipalities of different sizes. The relatively high costs in many small municipalities are mainly due not to municipality size but to the fact that small municipalities are disadvantaged by other structural factors. 2006.

Network for more efficient municipalities
- gives a concrete description of the design of Norway's national benchmarking project for municipalities. The report should be seen as part of the endeavours of the Council to support local government benchmarking. 2006.

Municipalities striking a balance
- uses statistical methods to analyse correlations between various background factors and the financial results reported by Swedish municipalities. 2005.

When municipalities lose their balance
- deals with how the balanced budget requirement for local authorities is handled by different types of municipalities, and with the occurrence of clear patterns concerning the levels and trends in the financial results of different groups of municipalities. 2004.

In comparison with others
- presents five examples of how the Local Government Database can be used in practice. These studies show that the database often does not give final answers but provides a good starting point for new, well-founded questions that can be answered through deeper analysis. They consider how a municipality can compare its costs with those of other municipalities, how the representatives of a municipality can obtain information about the state of their own and other municipalities as regards educational levels and education provision and, finally, how costs vary with size of municipality. 2004.

Ten examples of how the Local Government Database can be used, developed by Kommunforskning i Västsverige, a research group at Göteborg University's School of Public Administration
- presented in connection with the launch of the Local Government Database (LGDB) in order to inspire politicians and officers in municipalities and county councils - but also other stakeholders - to use the Database; to illustrate how the Database can be used; and to provide an instruction for the design of comparative studies and the production of information. 2003.

Comparison of municipal activities in municipalities with different financial results
- illustrates how the key ratios in the Local Government Database (LGDB) can be used to study whether municipalities with a deficit differ in any systematic way in terms of municipal services from municipalities with a surplus. 2003.