Arbeitspapier

Do mergers of large local governments reduce expenditures? Evidence from Germany using the synthetic control method

States merge small and medium sized municipalities to achieve economies of scale.Little is known to which extent mergers of large local governments reduce expenditures.I use the synthetic control method to identify the effect of mergers of county-sizedadministrations in Germany (districts) on public expenditures. In 2008, the Germanstate of Saxony reduced the number of districts from 22 to 10. Average district populationincreased substantially from 113,000 to 290,000 inhabitants. I construct a “SyntheticSaxony” serving as counterfactual to real Saxony from districts of ten other Germanstates that did not merge districts for years. The results do neither show that districtmergers reduce total expenditures per capita, nor expenditures in main expenditurecategories such as social care, education or administration. There seems to be no scaleeffects in jurisdictions of more than 100,000 inhabitants.

Sprache
Englisch

Erschienen in
Series: ifo Working Paper ; No. 224

Klassifikation
Wirtschaft
Education: Government Policy
Analysis of Education
State and Local Government: Health; Education; Welfare; Public Pensions
Thema
Bologna Reform
Bachelor introduction
student outcomes
instrumental variables

Ereignis
Geistige Schöpfung
(wer)
Roesel, Felix
Ereignis
Veröffentlichung
(wer)
ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich
(wo)
Munich
(wann)
2016

Handle
Letzte Aktualisierung
10.03.2025, 11:44 MEZ

Datenpartner

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Objekttyp

  • Arbeitspapier

Beteiligte

  • Roesel, Felix
  • ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich

Entstanden

  • 2016

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