Political representation and effects of municipal mergers

Oskari Harjunen, Tuukka Saarimaa, Janne Tukiainen*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

22 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We study the effects of municipal mergers using novel geocoded data on local public sector jobs and local politicians' place of residence. We find that the mergers had no effects on municipal expenditures overall after eight years. However, the mergers led to highly unequal geographic political representation in the post-merger councils among the merged municipalities. Small and politically marginalized municipalities experienced a substantial reduction in local public jobs in administration and health and social care services relative to the municipalities with stronger representation. Development of house prices suggests that the quality of the service-tax bundle deteriorated in these politically marginalized municipalities.

Original languageEnglish
Article number2049847019000177
Pages (from-to)72-88
Number of pages17
JournalPolitical Science Research and Methods
Volume9
Issue number1
Early online date12 Apr 2019
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2021
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

Keywords

  • Difference-in-differences
  • municipal mergers
  • political representation
  • regional inequality

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