No. 8/2012: Maintenance and building conditions in Norwegian local governments: Economic and political determinants

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to empirically investigate the determinants of maintenance spending and building conditions in Norwegian local governments. In the popular debate there is a concern that low levels of maintenance spending leads to poor building conditions, and in the long run also to excessive costs by reducing the lifetime of the buildings. We take advantage of three different data sources to assess the facility management: i) a comprehensive measure of maintenance spending that includes work conducted by local government employees, ii) survey data for general building conditions, and iii) survey data for school building conditions. The empirical analysis shows that these indicators of facility management are affected by both economic and political factors. Low fiscal capacity, fiscal distress, and a high degree of party fragmentation are associated with low levels of maintenance and poor building conditions.
JEL Classification: H72, H82
Keywords: Maintenance, Building conditions