Effects of Local Government Credit Ratings on Utilization of Coproduction for Service Provision

This paper investigates the relationship between credit ratings and a local governments’ decisions to utilize technologically-enabled coproduction (311 systems and service reporting via internet and smartphone applications). We use longitudinal financial data from the Lincoln Land Institutes Fiscally Standardized Cities database as our sample of cities and pair them with information on the implementation of 311 systems. The results of our analysis demonstrate that credit ratings do not predict the likelihood of adopting 311. However, our analysis demonstrates that the duration since 311 was adopted is positively related with credit rating. This suggests that cities with credit higher ratings will have had 311 in place longer than those with lower ratings.