Better Alone? Evidence on the Costs of Intermunicipal Cooperation

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Tricaud, Clemence
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California Los Angeles; Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-APPLIED ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7782
• DOI: 10.1257/app.20230344
• 发表日期: 2025
• 页码: 160-207
• 关键词: inter-municipal cooperation; local-governments; political-economy; jurisdiction size; urban-growth; determinants; IMPACT; origins; mergers; POLICY

摘要

This paper provides new evidence on why municipalities are often reluctant to integrate. Exploiting a French reform that made intermunicipal cooperation mandatory, I find that municipalities forced to integrate experienced a large increase in construction, consistent with NIMBYism, explaining their resistance and that rural municipalities ended up with fewer local public services. I do not find the same effects for municipalities that had voluntarily integrated prior to the law, while both types of municipality enjoyed similar benefits in terms of public transport and fiscal revenues. These findings support the fact that municipalities resisted to avoid the local costs of integration. ( JEL H70, R38, R51, R53, R58)