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Coalition formation and political decision making: Evidence from Finnish municipal mergers

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  • Saarimaa, Tuukka
  • Tukiainen, Janne

Abstract

This paper analyzes empirically the coalition formation of local governments. We introduce a novel econometric strategy involving choice based sampling from a spatial network to allow for multi-partner mergers in our empirical analysis. We apply our method to recent municipality mergers in Finland. The mergers were decided voluntarily by municipal councils but the central government promoted mergers through a subsidy scheme. Our main interest lies on the association of local politics with the merger decisions. Moreover, we are able to estimate the causal effect of the subsidy scheme on the merger decisions using a regression discontinuity design. We find that the local political environment is relevant for the merger decision making. The results are consistent with politicians' strategic behavior concerning private incentives on municipal employment possibilities and re-election. Furthermore, more concentrated political power at the local level seems to promote merging and different political parties hold different views concerning merging. The central government merger subsidy scheme has an effect on the type of mergers that took place. Overall, the results imply that local politics may hinder optimal coalition formation and that the central government may act as a corrective force by using an appropriate subsidy scheme.

Suggested Citation

  • Saarimaa, Tuukka & Tukiainen, Janne, 2010. "Coalition formation and political decision making: Evidence from Finnish municipal mergers," Working Papers 19, VATT Institute for Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:fer:wpaper:19
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    File URL: https://www.doria.fi/handle/10024/148758
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    1. van der Klaauw, Wilbert, 1997. "A Regression-Discontinuity Evaluation of the Effect of Financial Aid Offers on College Enrollment," Working Papers 97-10, C.V. Starr Center for Applied Economics, New York University.
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    Cited by:

    1. Edoardo Di Porto & Angela Parenti & Sonia Paty & Zineb Abidi, 2017. "Local government cooperation at work: a control function approach," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 17(2), pages 435-463.
    2. Edoardo Di Porto & Vincent Merlin & Sonia Paty, 2013. "Cooperation among local governments to deliver public services: a "structural" bivariate response model with fixed effects and endogenous covariate," Post-Print halshs-00861226, HAL.
    3. Eerola, Essi & Lyytikäinen, Teemu, 2015. "On the role of public price information in housing markets," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 74-84.

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