IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/vrs/njopap/v10y2017i1p39-59n2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Economies of Scale on the Municipal Level: Fact or Fiction in the Czech Republic?

Author

Listed:
  • Matějová Lenka

    (Assistant, Department of Public Economics, Faculty of Economics and Administration, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.)

  • Nemec Juraj

    (Professor, Department of Public Economics, Faculty of Economics and Administration, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.)

  • Křápek Milan

    (Assistant Professor, Private College of Economic Studies, Czech Republic.)

  • Klimovský Daniel

    (Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Faculty of Arts, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia.)

Abstract

Many countries have carried out extensive amalgamation-related territorial reforms at the level of local self-government and created relatively large municipalities. The Czech Republic is one of the few remaining European countries with a fragmented territorial structure. There is a lot of discussion in the country about the need for amalgamation, but this discussion is mainly based on political arguments rather than on empirical evidence about the feasibility of amalgamation and its potential to improve local government performance. This paper analyses economies of scale on the local level as a factor that should be reflected in debates about the pros and cons of amalgamation in the Czech Republic. To add to the existing knowledge about the reality of economies of scale on the municipal level in the Czech Republic, we processed the municipal costs of three selected areas on a representative sample of municipalities in the South Moravian Region. The analysis showed that economies of scale can be identified for collecting local fees and for pre-school and elementary education, but not for local administration. Our results suggest that the existence of too small municipalities in the Czech Republic results in inefficiencies and should be addressed.

Suggested Citation

  • Matějová Lenka & Nemec Juraj & Křápek Milan & Klimovský Daniel, 2017. "Economies of Scale on the Municipal Level: Fact or Fiction in the Czech Republic?," NISPAcee Journal of Public Administration and Policy, Sciendo, vol. 10(1), pages 39-59, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:vrs:njopap:v:10:y:2017:i:1:p:39-59:n:2
    DOI: 10.1515/nispa-2017-0002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/nispa-2017-0002
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1515/nispa-2017-0002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fox, William F. & Gurley, Tami, 2006. "Will consolidation improve sub-national governments ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3913, The World Bank.
    2. Charles M. Tiebout, 1956. "A Pure Theory of Local Expenditures," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 64(5), pages 416-416.
    3. Soukopová Jana & Nemec Juraj & Matějová Lenka & Struk Michal, 2014. "Municipality Size and Local Public Services: Do Economies of Scale Exist ?," NISPAcee Journal of Public Administration and Policy, Sciendo, vol. 7(2), pages 151-171, December.
    4. Faulk, Dagney Gail & Hicks, Michael J. & Cebula, Richard J., 2011. "Book Review: Local Government Consolidation in the United States," Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy, Mid-Continent Regional Science Association, vol. 41(1), pages 1-1.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gerard Turley & John McDonagh & Stephen McNena & Arkadiusz Grzedzinski, 2018. "Optimum Territorial Reforms in Local Government: An Empirical Analysis of Scale Economies in Ireland," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 49(4), pages 463-488.
    2. Reingewertz, Yaniv, 2014. "Fiscal Decentralization - a Survey of the Empirical Literature," MPRA Paper 59889, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Mark Callanan & Ronan Murphy & Aodh Quinlivan, 2014. "The Risks of Intuition: Size, Costs and Economies of Scale in Local Government," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 45(3), pages 371-403.
    4. Wei Tang & Geoffrey J.D. Hewings, 2017. "Do city–county mergers in China promote local economic development?," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 25(3), pages 439-469, July.
    5. Slack, Enid, 2007. "Managing the coordination of service delivery in metropolitan cities : the role of metropolitan governance," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4317, The World Bank.
    6. Hiroki Baba & Yasushi Asami, 2020. "Estimating the minimal efficient scale and the effect of intermunicipal cooperation on service provision areas for waste treatment in Japan," Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 139-158, February.
    7. Blesse, Sebastian & Baskaran, Thushyanthan, 2013. "Do municipal mergers result in scale economies? Evidence from a German federal state," University of Göttingen Working Papers in Economics 176, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics.
    8. Alejandro Rodriguez & Alvin Brown, 2013. "Urban Governance Reform Index: An Alignment of Traditional Reform and Public Choice Propositions," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 229-243, September.
    9. Francesca Bartolacci & Rosanna Salvia & Giovanni Quaranta & Luca Salvati, 2022. "Seeking the Optimal Dimension of Local Administrative Units: A Reflection on Urban Concentration and Changes in Municipal Size," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-17, November.
    10. Reingewertz, Yaniv, 2012. "Do municipal amalgamations work? Evidence from municipalities in Israel," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 240-251.
    11. Sun Go & Peter H. Lindert, 2007. "The Curious Dawn of American Public Schools," NBER Working Papers 13335, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Salih Ozgur SARICA, 2014. "Regional Economic Growth. Socio-Economic Disparities among Counties," Journal of Economic Development, Environment and People, Alliance of Central-Eastern European Universities, vol. 3(4), pages 25-36, December.
    13. Sandy Fréret & Denis Maguain, 2017. "The effects of agglomeration on tax competition: evidence from a two-regime spatial panel model on French data," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 24(6), pages 1100-1140, December.
    14. Hilber, Christian A.L., 2010. "New housing supply and the dilution of social capital," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 419-437, May.
    15. Natalie Brady, 2002. "Striking a Balance: Centralised and Decentralised Decisions in Government," Treasury Working Paper Series 02/15, New Zealand Treasury.
    16. Patrick Bayer & Fernando Ferreira & Robert McMillan, 2007. "A Unified Framework for Measuring Preferences for Schools and Neighborhoods," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 115(4), pages 588-638, August.
    17. Tidiane Ly, 2018. "Sub-metropolitan tax competition with household and capital mobility," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 25(5), pages 1129-1169, October.
    18. Jean Gabszewicz & Ornella Tarola & Skerdilajda Zanaj, 2016. "Migration, wages and income taxes," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 23(3), pages 434-453, June.
    19. Zodrow, George R, 2003. "Tax Competition and Tax Coordination in the European Union," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 10(6), pages 651-671, November.
    20. repec:rri:wpaper:200803 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Tomaz Dentinho & Vanda Serpa & Paulo Silveira & Joana Goncalves, 2006. "Land Use Change and Socio-Economic Evaluation in São Jorge Island (Between 15th and 20th Century)," ERSA conference papers ersa06p91, European Regional Science Association.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:vrs:njopap:v:10:y:2017:i:1:p:39-59:n:2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.sciendo.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.