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Amalgamation, free-rider behavior, and regulation

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  • Katsuyoshi Nakazawa

    (Toyo University)

Abstract

Amalgamation incentivizes municipalities to increase public debt because it allows them to subrogate their repayment and interest burden on the entire municipality after amalgamation. Smaller municipalities, in particular, tend to accumulate public debt in order to free-ride. Previous studies have shown this kind of opportunistic behavior in countries where municipalities can issue bonds freely in the market. However, in Japan, municipalities cannot issue bonds freely by regulation. When such regulation controls debt accumulation by the merging municipality, the free-rider effect should be weak. This study examines the relationship between the regulation of local government borrowing and free-rider behavior of Japanese municipalities. The difference-in-difference regression results confirm the existence of a free-rider effect in this regard. Moreover, the debt expenditure ratio, the index of the regulation of local public bond issues, has the same effect that prevents local public debt from increasing for both merging and never-merged municipalities. This fact shows that a merging municipality with a free-rider incentive cannot increase local public debt to excess by using the regulation. Therefore, the average free-rider effect per capita is approximately 7 % of the average local public debt per capita for the end of the pre-treatment period. This result is considerably lower than the effects of the Swedish cases.

Suggested Citation

  • Katsuyoshi Nakazawa, 2016. "Amalgamation, free-rider behavior, and regulation," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 23(5), pages 812-833, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:itaxpf:v:23:y:2016:i:5:d:10.1007_s10797-015-9381-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s10797-015-9381-0
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    2. Hirota, Haruaki & Yunoue, Hideo, 2017. "Evaluation of the fiscal effect on municipal mergers: Quasi-experimental evidence from Japanese municipal data," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 132-149.
    3. Tsuyoshi Goto & Genki Yamamoto, 2018. "Creative Accounting and Municipal Mergers -A Theoretical and Empirical Approach-," OSIPP Discussion Paper 18E012, Osaka School of International Public Policy, Osaka University.
    4. Imai, Masami, 2022. "Local economic impacts of legislative malapportionment," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    5. Goto, Tsuyoshi & Yamamoto, Genki, 2023. "Debt issuance incentives and creative accounting: Evidence from municipal mergers in Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    6. Katsuyoshi Nakazawa, 2013. "Municipality amalgamation and free-ride behavior: Eligibility assessments for long-term care insurance in Japan," MAGKS Papers on Economics 201340, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    7. 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.
    8. Hirota, Haruaki & Yunoue, Hideo, 2020. "Public investment and the fiscal common pool problem on municipal mergers in Japan," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 124-135.
    9. Blesse Sebastian & Rösel Felix, 2017. "Was bringen kommunale Gebietsreformen?: Kausale Evidenz zu Hoffnungen, Risiken und alternativen Instrumenten," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, De Gruyter, vol. 18(4), pages 307-324, November.
    10. Katsuyoshi Nakazawa, 2018. "Free‐rider behaviour under voluntary amalgamation: The case of setting the long‐term care insurance premium in Japan," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 97(4), pages 1409-1423, November.
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    12. Saito, Hitoshi & Hirota, Haruaki & Yunoue, Hideo & Miyaki, Miki, 2017. "Does municipal mergers internalize spatial spillover effects? Empirical evidence from Japanese municipalities," MPRA Paper 76833, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. 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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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Amalgamation; Free-rider behavior; Common pool; Difference-in-difference; Fiscal policy; Local public debt;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • H72 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Budget and Expenditures
    • H73 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Interjurisdictional Differentials and Their Effects
    • H74 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Borrowing
    • R51 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Regional Government Analysis - - - Finance in Urban and Rural Economies

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