Resumen de Understanding concurrent sourcing: Implications for the cost of public service provision

Rami Benabdelkrim, Jean Deuve, Zoé Le Squeren

• Concurrent sourcing in public services arise when identical (or almost identical) transactions are simultaneously produced in-house and contracted out by a same public entity. Based on recent theoretical developments, this paper proposes an empirical investigation of concurrent sourcing in the waste collection sector in France, analyzing both the ex ante motivations (why concurrent sourcing?) and the ex post consequences (what impact on performance?) of such choices by public authorities. Our findings suggest that the choice of concurrent sourcing is mainly based on economic efficiency considerations (scale economies and management of service complexity) without being immune to political considerations. Our results on the ex post consequences of this choice highlight a non-linear effect of this strategy on costs, and shows that the use of concurrent sourcing is an effective way for public authorities to discipline private partners beyond a certain threshold of activity volume.