Contracting Out for Performance on Democratic-Constitutional Values and Procedural Tasks in Federal Agencies

EasyChair Preprint no. 1085

Abstract

Contracting out has been considered one of the main performance management strategies to reduce costs and bring more expertise to government agencies. However, there is a lack of research analyzing the influence of contracting out on complex services for non-traditional performance outcomes that are difficult to measure. This study particularly examines whether contracting achieves better performance in complex services for democratic-constitutional, procedural (DCP) tasks compared to in-house delivery. Using agency level panel data on discrimination complaint processing from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the findings show a mixed relationship between contracting out and performance in DCP tasks measured with two proxy metrics—timeliness and costs. An increase in the use of contractors is associated with a decrease in the average cost and a decrease in timeliness.

Keyphrases: Contracting, Democratic-Constitutional Values, performance management, Procedural Tasks

@Booklet{EasyChair:1085,
  author = {Iseul Choi},
  title = {Contracting Out for Performance on Democratic-Constitutional Values and Procedural Tasks in Federal Agencies},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint no. 1085},

  year = {EasyChair, 2019}}