{"id":{"repo_id":"mississippi","oai_identifier":"oai:egrove.olemiss.edu:etd-1481"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/mississippi/oai:egrove.olemiss.edu:etd-1481","repository":{"repo_id":"mississippi","name":"University of Mississippi","base_url":"https://egrove.olemiss.edu/do/oai/"},"display":{"title":"Outsourcing And The Pupil Transportation Industry In Minnesota: An Economic Evaluation","abstract":"Private participation in the provision of public services is often promoted as a means to reducing production costs in the public sector. In this study, I test this result using a twelve-year panel dataset of 343 public school districts in Minnesota. The voting behavior of residents in the state’s House elections and school districts’ prior experience with contractors are used as instruments to control for the endogenous decision to outsource. The first stage results from fixed-effects two stage least squares (2SLS) regression show that the two instruments, population density and the number of school days increase the likelihood of outsourcing while wages have a negative effect. The second stage results, from the fixed-effects 2SLS regression show that the use of private contractors increases total transportation costs by 21 percent, a much greater effect than when the endogenous decision to outsource is ignored. However, as a share of total expenditure, outsourcing increases the ratio by about 2 percent; thus showing evidence of the cost burden that outsourcing imposes on school finances. The much smaller effect here however, may explain why school districts continue to use contractors despite the overwhelming empirical evidence against outsourcing.","abstract_html":"Private participation in the provision of public services is often promoted as a means to reducing production costs in the public sector. In this study, I test this result using a twelve-year panel dataset of 343 public school districts in Minnesota. The voting behavior of residents in the state’s House elections and school districts’ prior experience with contractors are used as instruments to control for the endogenous decision to outsource. The first stage results from fixed-effects two stage least squares (2SLS) regression show that the two instruments, population density and the number of school days increase the likelihood of outsourcing while wages have a negative effect. The second stage results, from the fixed-effects 2SLS regression show that the use of private contractors increases total transportation costs by 21 percent, a much greater effect than when the endogenous decision to outsource is ignored. However, as a share of total expenditure, outsourcing increases the ratio by about 2 percent; thus showing evidence of the cost burden that outsourcing imposes on school finances. The much smaller effect here however, may explain why school districts continue to use contractors despite the overwhelming empirical evidence against outsourcing.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Puozaa, Conrad Yelsong"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Ph.D. in Economics","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Economics","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Thomas Garrett","Lane Gauthier","William Chappell"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2016,"date_issued":"2016-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2016-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:05:36Z","subjects":["2Sls","Contract-Out","Education","Instrumental Variables","Outsource","Transportation Costs","Economics"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/482","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Thomas Garrett","Lane Gauthier","William Chappell"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Puozaa, Conrad Yelsong"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2019-06-20T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Economics"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D. in Economics"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["2Sls","Contract-Out","Education","Instrumental Variables","Outsource","Transportation Costs","Economics"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/482"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Private participation in the provision of public services is often promoted as a means to reducing production costs in the public sector. In this study, I test this result using a twelve-year panel dataset of 343 public school districts in Minnesota. The voting behavior of residents in the state’s House elections and school districts’ prior experience with contractors are used as instruments to control for the endogenous decision to outsource. The first stage results from fixed-effects two stage least squares (2SLS) regression show that the two instruments, population density and the number of school days increase the likelihood of outsourcing while wages have a negative effect. The second stage results, from the fixed-effects 2SLS regression show that the use of private contractors increases total transportation costs by 21 percent, a much greater effect than when the endogenous decision to outsource is ignored. However, as a share of total expenditure, outsourcing increases the ratio by about 2 percent; thus showing evidence of the cost burden that outsourcing imposes on school finances. The much smaller effect here however, may explain why school districts continue to use contractors despite the overwhelming empirical evidence against outsourcing."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Outsourcing And The Pupil Transportation Industry In Minnesota: An Economic Evaluation"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Thomas Garrett","Lane Gauthier","William Chappell"],"dc:creator":["Puozaa, Conrad Yelsong"],"dc:date.available":["2019-06-20T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Private participation in the provision of public services is often promoted as a means to reducing production costs in the public sector. In this study, I test this result using a twelve-year panel dataset of 343 public school districts in Minnesota. The voting behavior of residents in the state’s House elections and school districts’ prior experience with contractors are used as instruments to control for the endogenous decision to outsource. The first stage results from fixed-effects two stage least squares (2SLS) regression show that the two instruments, population density and the number of school days increase the likelihood of outsourcing while wages have a negative effect. The second stage results, from the fixed-effects 2SLS regression show that the use of private contractors increases total transportation costs by 21 percent, a much greater effect than when the endogenous decision to outsource is ignored. However, as a share of total expenditure, outsourcing increases the ratio by about 2 percent; thus showing evidence of the cost burden that outsourcing imposes on school finances. The much smaller effect here however, may explain why school districts continue to use contractors despite the overwhelming empirical evidence against outsourcing."],"dc:identifier":["https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/482"],"dc:subject":["2Sls","Contract-Out","Education","Instrumental Variables","Outsource","Transportation Costs","Economics"],"dc:title":["Outsourcing And The Pupil Transportation Industry In Minnesota: An Economic Evaluation"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Economics"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ph.D. in Economics"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:05:36Z"}