Abstract
We study the effects of municipal mergers using novel geocoded data on public
sector jobs and local politicians’ place of residence. We find that municipal fiscal
outcomes evolve in the same way on average in the merged municipalities as in
the control group of hypothetical mergers that did not take place. However, these
findings hide substantial heterogeneity within the mergers. The mergers led to
highly unequal political representation between the merging municipalities. The
municipalities that were politically marginalized in the post-merger council
experience a substantial reduction in local public jobs in administration and
health and social care sectors relative to the municipalities that were more
strongly represented.
sector jobs and local politicians’ place of residence. We find that municipal fiscal
outcomes evolve in the same way on average in the merged municipalities as in
the control group of hypothetical mergers that did not take place. However, these
findings hide substantial heterogeneity within the mergers. The mergers led to
highly unequal political representation between the merging municipalities. The
municipalities that were politically marginalized in the post-merger council
experience a substantial reduction in local public jobs in administration and
health and social care sectors relative to the municipalities that were more
strongly represented.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Valtion taloudellinen tutkimuskeskus (VATT) |
| Number of pages | 39 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 978-952-274-205-6 |
| Publication status | Published - Dec 2017 |
| MoE publication type | D4 Published development or research report or study |
Publication series
| Name | VATT Working papers |
|---|---|
| Publisher | VATT |
| No. | 98 |
| ISSN (Electronic) | 1798-0291 |
Keywords
- Difference-in-differences,
- municipal mergers
- political representation