Cost Efficiency in Municipal Solid Waste (MSW): Different Alternatives in Service Delivery for Small and Medium Sized Spanish Local Governments Zafra Gómez, José Luis López-Pérez, Germán Garrido Montañés, Marta Zafra Gómez, Elisabeth Efficiency MSW Municipalities Public management Privatization The provision of local public services has become one of the main concerns of local governments. Therefore, the selection of the most appropriate form of management to maximize efficiency levels in the provision of local public services has been widely analyzed throughout the academic literature. In this context, the aim of this paper is to add new knowledge to the literature on efficiency in the provision of local public services. To this end, we propose the study of four forms of management (interested indirect management; indirect management by concession; intermunicipal co-operation; public service provision) through a free disposal hull data panel (FDHDP) methodology for the 2014–2016 period. We find that public-private partnership contracting is less efficient on waste removal services when accounting for quality. However, the promised benefits of contracting out are realized when contractors are made responsive to service quality through concessions. 2023-05-26T08:22:46Z 2023-05-26T08:22:46Z 2023-04-04 journal article Zafra-Gómez, J.-L.; López-Pérez, G.; Garrido-Montañés, M.; Zafra-Gómez, E. Cost Efficiency in Municipal Solid Waste (MSW): Different Alternatives in Service Delivery for Small and Medium Sized Spanish Local Governments. Sustainability 2023, 15, 6198. [https://doi.org/10.3390/su15076198] https://hdl.handle.net/10481/81851 10.3390/su15076198 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ open access Atribución 4.0 Internacional MDPI