Complaints
and Geographic Mobility as
Responses to Dissatisfaction with Public Services
Paul J. Devereux and Burton
A. Weisbrod
Abstract
Complaints and geographic mobility--that is, "voice: and "exit"--are
potential responses to "dissatisfaction" in the market for publicly
provided municipal services, as in other markets. We find that reported
dissatisfaction with public services can be used to predict both.
Furthermore, complaining and mobility appear to be complementary,
rather than competitive, responses to dissatisfaction. One implication
of our findings that stated dissatisfaction has behavioral consequences
is that the vast bodies of survey data on satisfaction have information
content that has been underappreciated in economics research.
Paul J. Devereux, doctoral candidate, Department
of Economics, Northwestern University Burton A. Weisbrod,
Department of Economics, Northwestern University
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