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I Don't Care to Belong to Any Club That Will Have Me as a Member: Empirical Analysis of Municipal Mergers

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  • Saarimaa, Tuukka
  • Tukiainen, Janne

Abstract

The efficiency of local public goods provision and the functioning of local democracy crucially depend on the size and number of local jurisdictions. This article empirically analyzes voluntary municipal mergers in Finland. Our main focus is on aspects that have been somewhat neglected in prior empirical work: whether local democracy considerations, representation and voter preferences are involved in shaping the resulting municipal structure. The main results imply that some municipalities are forced to merge due to fiscal pressure and have to trade off political power to be accepted by their partners. The study also finds that the median voter's distance from services matters, while population size does not. The latter, somewhat surprising, observation is possibly explained by existing municipal co-operation, which already exhausts potential economies of scale.

Suggested Citation

  • Saarimaa, Tuukka & Tukiainen, Janne, 2014. "I Don't Care to Belong to Any Club That Will Have Me as a Member: Empirical Analysis of Municipal Mergers," Political Science Research and Methods, Cambridge University Press, vol. 2(1), pages 97-117, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:pscirm:v:2:y:2014:i:01:p:97-117_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Saarimaa, Tuukka & Tukiainen, Janne, 2015. "Common pool problems in voluntary municipal mergers," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 140-152.
    2. Clémence Tricaud, 2019. "Better alone? Evidence on the costs of intermunicipal cooperation," Economics Working Paper from Condorcet Center for political Economy at CREM-CNRS 2019-12-ccr, Condorcet Center for political Economy.
    3. Saarimaa, Tuukka & Tukiainen, Janne, 2016. "Local representation and strategic voting: Evidence from electoral boundary reforms," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 31-45.
    4. Benjamin Bruns & Ronny Freier & Abel Schumann, "undated". "Finding your right (or left) partner to merge," BDPEMS Working Papers 2015009, Berlin School of Economics.
    5. Zineb Abidi & Matthieu Leprince & Vincent Merlin, 2020. "Power Inequality in Inter-communal Structures: The Simulated Impact of a Reform in the Case of the Municipalities in Western France," Post-Print halshs-02996998, HAL.
    6. Hyytinen, Ari & Saarimaa, Tuukka & Tukiainen, Janne, 2014. "Electoral vulnerability and size of local governments: Evidence from voting on municipal mergers," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 193-204.
    7. Ronny Freier & Benjamin Bruns & Abel Schumann, 2015. "Finding your right (or left) partner to merge," ERSA conference papers ersa15p188, European Regional Science Association.
    8. Lapointe, Simon, 2018. "“Love thy neighbour”? The effect of income and language differences on votes for municipal secessions," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 229-245.
    9. Simon Lapointe & Tuukka Saarimaa & Janne Tukiainen, 2018. "Effects of municipal mergers on voter turnout," Local Government Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(4), pages 512-530, July.
    10. Lothar Grall & Juergen Meckl, 2016. "Natural Selection, Technological Progress, and the Origin of Human Longevity," MAGKS Papers on Economics 201645, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    11. Harjunen, Oskari & Saarimaa, Tuukka & Tukiainen, Janne, 2021. "Political representation and effects of municipal mergers," Political Science Research and Methods, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(1), pages 72-88, January.
    12. Shin Kimura & Yoichi Hizen, 2021. "Does Inter-municipal Cooperation Lead to Municipal Amalgamation? Evidence from Japanese Municipal Referenda," Working Papers SDES-2021-2, Kochi University of Technology, School of Economics and Management, revised Feb 2021.
    13. Blesse, Sebastian & Heinemann, Friedrich, 2020. "Citizens’ trade-offs in state merger decisions: Evidence from a randomized survey experiment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 438-471.
    14. Christian Bergholz & Ivo Bischoff, 2019. "Citizens’ support for inter-municipal cooperation: evidence from a survey in the German state of Hesse," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(12), pages 1268-1283, March.
    15. repec:hal:journl:hal-03380333 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Robert Clark & Mario Samano, 2022. "Incentivized Mergers and Cost Efficiency: Evidence from the Electricity Distribution Industry," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 70(4), pages 791-837, December.
    17. Blesse, Sebastian & Baskaran, Thushyanthan, 2016. "Do municipal mergers reduce costs? Evidence from a German federal state," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 54-74.
    18. Hitoshi Saito & Haruaki Hirota & Hideo Yunoue & Miki Miyaki, 2023. "Do municipal mergers internalise spatial spillover effects? empirical evidence from Japanese municipalities," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 70(2), pages 379-406, April.
    19. Benjamin Bruns & Ronny Freier & Abel Schumann, 2015. "Finding Your Right (or Left) Partner to Merge," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1467, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    20. Saarimaa, Tuukka & Tukiainen, Janne, 2016. "Local representation and strategic voting: Evidence from electoral boundary reforms," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 31-45.
    21. Lothar Grall & Juergen Meckl, 2016. "Ice Age Climate, Somatic Capital, and the Timing of the Neolithic Transition," MAGKS Papers on Economics 201644, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    22. Lothar Grall, 2016. "Geography, Parental Investment, and Comparative Economic Development," MAGKS Papers on Economics 201646, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    23. Sebastian Blesse & Felix Rösel, 2017. "Gebietsreformen: Hoffnungen, Risiken und Alternativen," ifo Working Paper Series 234, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.

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