Understanding mixed forms of refuse collection, privatisation and its reverse in the Netherlands

Based on panel data for almost all Dutch municipalities, we analyze changes in the mode of service production for refuse collection between 1998 and 2010. We distinguish execution by private enterprises, municipal enterprises, municipal cooperation, outsourcing to neighboring municipalities, and in-house collection. The number of municipalities using mixed forms, such as municipal enterprise, rose as the use of other forms declined, although municipal cooperation only decreased slightly. In approximately half of Dutch municipalities, the mode of production was stable between 1998 and 2010. In the other municipalities, shifts took place, with two-thirds being towards outside production and one-third towards inside production. Based on a logit model, we find some evidence of an ideological motivation for changing the mode of production. For income, we show that richer municipalities are less likely to change. We also illustrate the robustness of this result to various assumptions.