This thesis examines the duration of shared service agreements using data drawn from a local government survey in New York State. A hierarchical linear model is used to nest 2,606 discrete shared service agreements within 595 unique local governmental units to distinguish drivers at the government and agreement level. I find shared service agreements fall along a cooperation continuum with different determinants for shorter and longer-term agreements. I differentiate opportunities, goals, mechanisms, and transaction costs for both groups. Government level characteristics drive duration much more than agreement-level variables. Cost savings are a determinant of shorter agreements, while increased service quality and improved cross-jurisdictional coordination explain longer-term agreements. A longitudinal analysis of local government expenditure data shows the shared service cost curves. This analysis lays the foundation for a new framework of shared services that builds directly from the benefits of improved regional coordination and inter-municipal reciprocity, not costs.