Public involvement in the provision of complex services

I present four closely related projects. All concern the role of the government in the provision of complex services. The services are complex in the literal sense, of having many dimensions, and in the meaning of being complicated. Quality is often diffi cult to observe for outsiders, and if observed it is still a non-trivial matter to verify quality. Moreover, some dimensions may be easier to observe, or easier to verify than others. In a nursing home sample, I want to study how information about intangi ble aspects of goods or services (here: care quality) can be made publicly available. Another common characteristic is that the service recipient (if there is such a well-defined group/individual) has a weak position as a consumer. In my Ph.d. thesis I ar gue that this makes public monitoring important, but also reinforces the incentive problem of public monitors. I want to investigate this empirically, using long term care as a case. In both projects I cooperate with NOVA. A cooperative effort with Profe ssor Asheim is to use, possibly develop further, applied theories of incomplete contracting to study public procurement of complex goods in health care. The last project is an analysis, using experimental methods, of the role of other-regarding preferenc es, when social interaction is important for non-enforceable quality.