La délégation de service public, un mode organisationnel efficace ? Le cas de la distribution d’eau en France

Abstract

In this paper, we use a transaction cost economics framework to address the question of the optimum organizational arrangement of public services and the link to observed performances. Using an original database of more than 2000 organizational choices made by French public authorities, and another data base of 73 French water supply contracts, we study the case of water supply in France. We defend the idea that the framework put forward by transaction cost economics can help us to understand the role of the chosen governance structures in the efficiency of public services. More precisely, the main message of the theory is that it is more important to take into account the fact that governance structures are not and should not be chosen randomly, than to compare the efficiency of different governance structures.