City Size and Public Service Delivery in Comparative Perspective

根据联合国的预测，未来20年全球人口增长的大部分将发生在中小型城市中心。与此同时，许多国家最近将提供许多基本服务的权力下放给市政府。这意味着，如果人们要获得基本的卫生、教育和基础设施服务，了解市政政治是至关重要的。这种服务使人们能够参与劳动力市场，促进经济发展，从而有助于政治和社会稳定。该项目将记录三个世界区域四个高度分散的民主国家中不同规模城市的服务获取和质量差异程度。它将为政策制定提供信息，揭示导致不同规模城市重要地方服务质量和覆盖范围差异的政治因素。特别是，项目结果将使政策制定者能够更有效地针对旨在改善低收入和中等收入国家当地服务提供的贷款和赠款。本项目提出并检验了一种新的理论解释，解释了不同规模城市之间政策重点和服务提供结果的差异。它的理论是，小城市的官员将优先投资于基本的卫生和教育设施，而大城市的官员将把注意力放在更广泛的政策领域，并优先考虑更专业的卫生和教育服务，而不是诊所和学校。这些差异源于大城市中更多的非国家保健和教育提供者，大城市中选民更关注城市问题（即拥堵、犯罪），以及小城市的基本保健和教育设施的政治家更有能力要求并归功于他们。研究将使用各种类型的数据来检验这一理论，包括：来自每个案例研究国家的行政和政治数据汇编；公共设施位置的地理空间数据；社交媒体帖子和直播的市议会会议；对公民和政治家进行调查；在不同规模的城市案例中进行定性研究。通过该项目创建的数据集将与在线存储库一起发布。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

According to U.N. projections, most global population growth during next two decades will occur in small- and medium-sized urban centers. Meanwhile, many countries have recently decentralized the provision of many basic services to municipal governments. This means that understanding municipal politics is critical if populations are to have access to basic health, education, and infrastructure services. Such services enable participation in labor markets and facilitate economic development, and thereby contribute to political and social stability. This project will document the extent to which service access and quality vary across cities of different sizes in four large, highly decentralized democracies in three world regions. It will inform policymaking by shedding light on the political factors driving differences in the quality and reach of vital local services across cities of different sizes. In particular, project findings will position policymakers to more effectively target lending and grants intended to improve local service delivery in low- and middle-income countries. This project proposes and tests a new theoretical explanation of variation in policy priorities and service delivery outcomes across cities of different sizes. It theorizes that officials in smaller cities will prioritize investments in basic health and education facilities, whereas officials in larger cities will devote attention to a broader set of policy areas, and prioritize more specialized health and education services over clinics and schools. These differences stem from the greater prevalence non-state health and education providers in larger cities, greater voter concerns regarding urban problems (i.e., congestion, crime) in larger cities, and politicians’ greater ability to claim and attribute credit for basic health and education facilities in smaller cities. Research will test this theory using a variety of types of data, including: compiled administrative and political data from each of the case study countries; geospatial data on the location of public facilities; social media posts and livestreamed city council meetings; surveys with citizens and politicians; and qualitative research in case study cities of different sizes. Datasets created through the project will be published with online repositories.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.