Viability of municipal companies in the provision of urban infrastructure services

This article discusses the organisational and institutional model of municipal company in the provision of urban infrastructure services in Portugal. The law recently enacted which defined the legal regime for the local business sector, as well as the growing awareness that the new public management models represent great advantages in comparison with the bureaucratic ones that characterise the traditional public administration, make this a current and relevant issue. For the purpose of investigating the viability of this provision model, this research encompasses three complementary analyses. Firstly, the results obtained from a nationwide questionnaire on the features of municipal companies are described. Secondly, a SWOT matrix is constructed to examine the model of municipal company and, thirdly, the total factor productivity (TFP) of 1 We would like to thank to Pedro Simões and other colleagues of the Centre of Urban and Regional Systems for useful suggestions and comments. 2 Corresponding author.