The purpose of this paper is to explore capital investment practices in Swedish local governments, outline some critical issues of the resource allocation process and also to reveal the behind rationales used for and influencing decision making of large tangible investment projects. Through a survey to all 290 Swedish local governments, in combination with interviews in two municipalities, the resource allocation process is mapped and analyzed.

Our results confirm and support the existing literature in the area of capital investment practice in local governments, in terms of the large spread of financial- and non-financial criteria used in the process of evaluating new projects. Additionally, we find support for the fact that local governments which have adopted New Public Management to a larger extent also tend to use more sophisticated capital investment routines and methods. 

The main contribution with this study is added granularity about capital investment practices in local governments in general and more in depth insights about the tension in use of diverse and conflicting decision rationales. These rationales that exists in the municipalities during the resource allocation process are financial-, operational-, and political. Altogether, the capital investment practice in Swedish local governments reveals a complex and even messy picture.

In conclusion this research also provides additional insight to some potential inclination effects and consequences of today´s capital investment practice in local governments and agencies.