Start Date
12-17-2013
Description
Public safety networks are crucial for ensuring effective communications among first responders in emergency situations. This paper provides a comprehensive framework for analyzing the key tradeoffs between centralized and decentralized provisions of public safety networks. We extend the classic fiscal federalism model to capture a critical unique property of public safety networks – interoperability. Under decentralized provision, individual districts’ technology choices jointly determine the interoperability of public safety networks. Counterintuitively, the interoperability level is lower when the spillover effect is stronger. Under centralized provision, one uniform technology is chosen to maximize interoperability while accommodating local needs. When comparing output levels under centralized versus decentralized provision, we identify two countervailing effects: the spillover effect and the interoperability effect. In contrast to common public opinion, we find that a decentralized system may provide better quality of services than a centralized system when technology preferences are highly heterogeneous across different districts.
Recommended Citation
Liu, Yipeng; Guo, Hong; and Nault, Barrie, "Technology, Interoperability, and Provision of Public Safety Networks" (2013). ICIS 2013 Proceedings. 4.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2013/proceedings/EconomicsOfIS/4
Technology, Interoperability, and Provision of Public Safety Networks
Public safety networks are crucial for ensuring effective communications among first responders in emergency situations. This paper provides a comprehensive framework for analyzing the key tradeoffs between centralized and decentralized provisions of public safety networks. We extend the classic fiscal federalism model to capture a critical unique property of public safety networks – interoperability. Under decentralized provision, individual districts’ technology choices jointly determine the interoperability of public safety networks. Counterintuitively, the interoperability level is lower when the spillover effect is stronger. Under centralized provision, one uniform technology is chosen to maximize interoperability while accommodating local needs. When comparing output levels under centralized versus decentralized provision, we identify two countervailing effects: the spillover effect and the interoperability effect. In contrast to common public opinion, we find that a decentralized system may provide better quality of services than a centralized system when technology preferences are highly heterogeneous across different districts.