Barriers to the implementation of cost-effective in Spanish local authorities

ABSTRACT This paper aims to analyse the main barriers to the forms of institutional work that have been developed to the implementation of Cost-Effective of Services in Local Governments (CESEL, in Spanish) in the Spanish local governments. The research methodology has consisted of a longitudinal case study conducted in the City Council of Seville that has extended in the period 2012–2018. The results have been interpreted according to the arguments of New Institutional Sociology. This paper contributes to the previous literature by proposing a theoretical model in which the institutional pressures of the context, the forms of institutional work carried out, the main barriers, the mediating factors and the actions of institutional work adopted by various actors are identified and related. As a consequence, the new cost system was configured as an instrument for improving the transparency, although with an almost null impact in the public services management.