International Journal of Public and Private Healthcare Management and Economics, 3(1), 17-32, January-March 2013 17 Copyright © 2013, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. ABSTRACT This paper presents a baseline picture of the co-operation between service purchasers and private elderly care and primary health care providers both at the national level and at the level of local welfare regimes in Finland. Data from two national surveys and from interviews conducted in six municipalities are analysed. The perceptions of the co-operation during the contractual period differed substantially between the private providers and the municipalities. The differences were evident especially between the for-proft providers and the municipalities. In general the private providers would be willing to work together with the municipalities, but to them it seems that the municipalities lack interest in this. The municipalities, in turn, considered that contracting is mostly a tool to reduce administrative responsibilities. However, in order to be able to gain benefts from contracting, to avoid excessive transaction costs and to co-ordinate the network of different service providers, the municipalities should invest in contract management and also be active during the contractual period. Perspectives on Purchaser- Provider Co-Operation in the Local Welfare Regimes in Finland Liina-Kaisa Tynkkynen, School of Health Sciences, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland Sami Fredriksson, National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), Helsinki, Finland Juhani Lehto, School of Health Sciences, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland Keywords: Contract Management, Contracting Out, Mixed Methods, Public-Private Partnership, Public Sector Reform INTRODUCTION This paper explores the co-operation between service purchasers (i.e. municipalities) and private for-profit and not-for-profit elderly care and primary health care providers in the context of the local welfare regimes in Finland. We use the term co-operation to refer to a concept that might also be labelled Public-Private Partner- ship (PPP). However, due to its ambiguous character (e.g. Weihe, 2008) we prefer a more general term co-operation. At the operational level we have divided co-operation into four dimensions: information sharing, trust, evalua- DOI: 10.4018/ijpphme.2013010102