Metropolitan governance and public services in Campinas, Brazil : how regional cooperation can improve the provision of health and education

Abstract

This paper considers how financing, institutions, and metropolitan cooperation play into the provision of public services, specifically healthcare and education, in the Metropolitan Region of Campinas (RMC). Given that the municipal level of government is often too small to effectively provide public services, especially in the context of extensive decentralization, I argue that the metropolitan level of aggregation, for reasons including greater economies of scale, more efficient delivery of services and regional equity, constitutes a more relevant unit of service provision. The recent emergence of the Agência Metropolitana de Campinas (Agemcamp) offers the possibility for achieving greater metropolitan cooperation, leading to improved public services in the RMC.