IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/anresc/v72y2024i3d10.1007_s00168-023-01232-3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Inter-municipal cooperation and public employment: evidence from French municipalities

Author

Listed:
  • Touria Jaaidane

    (Université de Lille, CNRS, IESEG School of Management, UMR 9221 LEM, Lille Economie Management
    CRED, Université de Paris 2 Assas)

  • Sophie Larribeau

    (Univ Rennes, CNRS, CREM – UMR6211)

  • Matthieu Leprince

    (Université Brest, Ifremer, IUEM, UMR 6308 AMURE)

Abstract

Studies of public municipal employment are surprisingly scarce though municipalities are major employers in many countries. To address this issue, we build an original panel dataset of 8421 municipalities (more than 1000 inhabitants) in France over the 2002–2008 period, during which inter-municipal cooperation (IMC) was fostered. Using event study techniques to identify the causal effect of entry into an IMC body on municipal employment, we first show that cooperation triggers personnel downsizing at the municipal level. Second, using an IV method, we evidence a causal impact of employment at the inter-municipal community level on municipal employment. This effect is positive for municipalities with a short experience in cooperation, but becomes negative for more experienced municipalities, suggesting that substitution between the employment at the two tiers takes time to operate. Finally, cooperation leads mayors to increase municipal employment when unemployment is higher and this effect is greater for municipalities nested in high-employment communities than in small ones.

Suggested Citation

  • Touria Jaaidane & Sophie Larribeau & Matthieu Leprince, 2024. "Inter-municipal cooperation and public employment: evidence from French municipalities," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 72(3), pages 987-1014, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:anresc:v:72:y:2024:i:3:d:10.1007_s00168-023-01232-3
    DOI: 10.1007/s00168-023-01232-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00168-023-01232-3
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s00168-023-01232-3?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H70 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - General
    • J45 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Public Sector Labor Markets
    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:anresc:v:72:y:2024:i:3:d:10.1007_s00168-023-01232-3. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.