American Economic Journal:
Applied Economics
ISSN 1945-7782 (Print) | ISSN 1945-7790 (Online)
Better Alone? Evidence on the Costs of Intermunicipal Cooperation
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
vol. 17,
no. 1, January 2025
(pp. 160–207)
Abstract
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.Citation
Tricaud, Clemence. 2025. "Better Alone? Evidence on the Costs of Intermunicipal Cooperation." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 17 (1): 160–207. DOI: 10.1257/app.20230344Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- H70 State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations: General
- R38 Production Analysis and Firm Location: Government Policy
- R51 Finance in Urban and Rural Economies
- R53 Public Facility Location Analysis; Public Investment and Capital Stock
- R58 Regional Development Planning and Policy
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