IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/anresc/v70y2023i2d10.1007_s00168-022-01151-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do municipal mergers internalise spatial spillover effects? empirical evidence from Japanese municipalities

Author

Listed:
  • Hitoshi Saito

    (Wakayama University)

  • Haruaki Hirota

    (Musashi University)

  • Hideo Yunoue

    (Nagoya City University)

  • Miki Miyaki

    (Chuo University)

Abstract

This study investigates whether municipal mergers could internalise spatial spillover effects by comparing mergers before and after they occur, focusing on local public library services in Japan. A spatial spillover effect occurs when the benefit of a local public service spreads across its own administrative district and into neighbouring ones. A free-rider problem among municipalities might arise when a municipality decides how much to supply internally under a decentralisation system, recognising the existence of spatial spillover effects. Under such circumstances, spatial spillover effects might be internalised through municipal mergers. In Japan, large-scale municipal mergers took place in FY2004 and FY2005 and the number of municipalities decreased from 3,232 to 1,820. By applying cross-sectional spatial econometrics models, we find spatial spillover effects in public library services both before and after the mergers, but the impact becomes smaller. The results imply that municipal mergers could partially internalise spatial spillover effects among municipalities. Additionally, we showed that municipal mergers increase the supply of library services. As a result, due to the merger of municipalities, the undersupply of local public goods with spatial spillover effect may be decreased, which could help achieve the socially optimal supply.

Suggested Citation

  • Hitoshi Saito & Haruaki Hirota & Hideo Yunoue & Miki Miyaki, 2023. "Do municipal mergers internalise spatial spillover effects? empirical evidence from Japanese municipalities," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 70(2), pages 379-406, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:anresc:v:70:y:2023:i:2:d:10.1007_s00168-022-01151-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s00168-022-01151-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00168-022-01151-9
    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/s00168-022-01151-9?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 search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Saarimaa, Tuukka & Tukiainen, Janne, 2015. "Common pool problems in voluntary municipal mergers," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 140-152.
    2. Clémence Tricaud, 2019. "Better alone? Evidence on the costs of intermunicipal cooperation," Economics Working Paper from Condorcet Center for political Economy at CREM-CNRS 2019-12-ccr, Condorcet Center for political Economy.
    3. Benedikt Fritz & Lars P. Feld, 2020. "Common pool effects and local public debt in amalgamated municipalities," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 183(1), pages 69-99, April.
    4. Christopher Hammond, 2002. "Efficiency in the provision of public services: a data envelopment analysis of UK public library systems," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(5), pages 649-657.
    5. Johan Lundberg, 2006. "Spatial interaction model of spillovers from locally provided public services," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(6), pages 631-644.
    6. Reingewertz, Yaniv, 2012. "Do municipal amalgamations work? Evidence from municipalities in Israel," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 240-251.
    7. Bev Dahlby, 1996. "Fiscal externalities and the design of intergovernmental grants," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 3(3), pages 397-412, July.
    8. Tsuyoshi Goto & Sandra Sekgetle & Takashi Kuramoto, 2021. "Municipal merger and debt issuance in South African municipalities," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(5), pages 343-348, March.
    9. Hyytinen, Ari & Saarimaa, Tuukka & Tukiainen, Janne, 2014. "Electoral vulnerability and size of local governments: Evidence from voting on municipal mergers," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 193-204.
    10. Peter H Egger & Marko Koethenbuerger & Gabriel Loumeau, 2022. "Local border reforms and economic activity," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 22(1), pages 81-102.
    11. Hirota, Haruaki & Yunoue, Hideo, 2017. "Evaluation of the fiscal effect on municipal mergers: Quasi-experimental evidence from Japanese municipal data," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 132-149.
    12. Sole-Olle, Albert, 2006. "Expenditure spillovers and fiscal interactions: Empirical evidence from local governments in Spain," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 32-53, January.
    13. Henrik Jordahl & Che-Yuan Liang, 2010. "Merged municipalities, higher debt: on free-riding and the common pool problem in politics," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 143(1), pages 157-172, April.
    14. Harjunen, Oskari & Saarimaa, Tuukka & Tukiainen, Janne, 2021. "Political representation and effects of municipal mergers," Political Science Research and Methods, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(1), pages 72-88, January.
    15. Katsuyoshi Nakazawa, 2016. "Amalgamation, free-rider behavior, and regulation," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 23(5), pages 812-833, October.
    16. Takeshi Miyazaki, 2014. "Municipal consolidation and local government behavior: evidence from Japanese voting data on merger referenda," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 387-410, November.
    17. Niklas Hanes, 2002. "Spatial Spillover Effects in the Swedish Local Rescue Services," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(5), pages 531-539.
    18. DeBoer, Larry, 1992. "Economies of scale and input substitution in public libraries," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 257-268, September.
    19. Case, Anne C. & Rosen, Harvey S. & Hines, James Jr., 1993. "Budget spillovers and fiscal policy interdependence : Evidence from the states," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(3), pages 285-307, October.
    20. Blesse, Sebastian & Baskaran, Thushyanthan, 2016. "Do municipal mergers reduce costs? Evidence from a German federal state," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 54-74.
    21. Donald F. Vitaliano, 1997. "X-Inefficiency in the Public Sector: the Case of Libraries," Public Finance Review, , vol. 25(6), pages 629-643, November.
    22. Niklas Hanes, 2015. "Amalgamation Impacts on Local Public Expenditures in Sweden," Local Government Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(1), pages 63-77, January.
    23. Sune Welling Hansen, 2014. "Common pool size and project size: an empirical test on expenditures using Danish municipal mergers," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 159(1), pages 3-21, April.
    24. Nobuo Akai & Miki Suhara, 2013. "Strategic Interaction Among Local Governments in Japan: An Application to Cultural Expenditure," The Japanese Economic Review, Japanese Economic Association, vol. 64(2), pages 232-247, June.
    25. Saarimaa, Tuukka & Tukiainen, Janne, 2014. "I Don't Care to Belong to Any Club That Will Have Me as a Member: Empirical Analysis of Municipal Mergers," Political Science Research and Methods, Cambridge University Press, vol. 2(1), pages 97-117, April.
    26. Tyrefors Hinnerich, Björn, 2009. "Do merging local governments free ride on their counterparts when facing boundary reform?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(5-6), pages 721-728, June.
    27. Iimi,Atsushi & You,Liangzhi & Wood-Sichra,Ulrike & Humphrey,Richard Martin, 2015. "Agriculture production and transport infrastructure in east Africa : an application of spatial autoregression," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7281, The World Bank.
    28. Baicker, Katherine, 2005. "The spillover effects of state spending," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(2-3), pages 529-544, February.
    29. Katsuyoshi Nakazawa & Tomohisa Miyashita, 2014. "Municipality amalgamation in Japan: an examination using event history analysis," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 34(2), pages 627-633.
    30. Andrew F. Haughwout, 1999. "Regional fiscal cooperation in metropolitan areas: An exploration," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(4), pages 579-600.
    31. Sune Welling Hansen, 2019. "Exploiting the common pool or looking to the future? A study of free-riding leading up to the 2007 municipal amalgamations in Denmark," Local Government Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(5), pages 676-696, September.
    32. Gordon, Nora & Knight, Brian, 2009. "A spatial merger estimator with an application to school district consolidation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(5-6), pages 752-765, June.
    33. James C. Murdoch & Morteza Rahmatian & Mark A. Thayer, 1993. "A Spatially Autoregressive Median Voter Model of Recreation Expenditures," Public Finance Review, , vol. 21(3), pages 334-350, July.
    34. Figlio, David N. & Kolpin, Van W. & Reid, William E., 1999. "Do States Play Welfare Games?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 437-454, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jingru Xu & Xiangjing Tong & Baochen Yang, 2024. "The spatial spillover effect of carbon emission trading scheme on green innovation in China’s cities," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 73(2), pages 639-669, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Saito, Hitoshi & Hirota, Haruaki & Yunoue, Hideo & Miyaki, Miki, 2017. "Does municipal mergers internalize spatial spillover effects? Empirical evidence from Japanese municipalities," MPRA Paper 76833, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Blesse, Sebastian & Baskaran, Thushyanthan, 2016. "Do municipal mergers reduce costs? Evidence from a German federal state," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 54-74.
    3. Blesse Sebastian & Rösel Felix, 2017. "Was bringen kommunale Gebietsreformen?: Kausale Evidenz zu Hoffnungen, Risiken und alternativen Instrumenten," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, De Gruyter, vol. 18(4), pages 307-324, November.
    4. Hirota, Haruaki & Yunoue, Hideo, 2020. "Public investment and the fiscal common pool problem on municipal mergers in Japan," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 124-135.
    5. Hirota, Haruaki & Iwata, Kazuyuki & Tanaka, Kenta, 2022. "Is public official training effective at reducing costs? Evidence from survey data on Japanese municipal mergers," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 145-158.
    6. Hirota, Haruaki & Yunoue, Hideo, 2017. "Evaluation of the fiscal effect on municipal mergers: Quasi-experimental evidence from Japanese municipal data," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 132-149.
    7. Massimiliano Ferraresi & Umberto Galmarini & Leonzio Rizzo, 2018. "Infrastructure spillovers and strategic interaction: does the size matter?," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 25(1), pages 240-272, February.
    8. Sebastian Blesse & Felix Rösel, 2017. "Gebietsreformen: Hoffnungen, Risiken und Alternativen," ifo Working Paper Series 234, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    9. Masayoshi Hayashi & Wataru Yamamoto, 2017. "Information sharing, neighborhood demarcation, and yardstick competition: an empirical analysis of intergovernmental expenditure interaction in Japan," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 24(1), pages 134-163, February.
    10. Tavares Antonio F., 2018. "Municipal amalgamations and their effects: a literature review," Miscellanea Geographica. Regional Studies on Development, Sciendo, vol. 22(1), pages 5-15, March.
    11. Harjunen, Oskari & Saarimaa, Tuukka & Tukiainen, Janne, 2021. "Political representation and effects of municipal mergers," Political Science Research and Methods, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(1), pages 72-88, January.
    12. Saarimaa, Tuukka & Tukiainen, Janne, 2015. "Common pool problems in voluntary municipal mergers," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 140-152.
    13. Lapointe, Simon, 2018. "“Love thy neighbour”? The effect of income and language differences on votes for municipal secessions," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 229-245.
    14. Masayoshi Hayashi & Takafumi Suzuki, 2018. "Municipal Mergers and Capitalization: Evaluating the Heisei Territorial Reform in Japan," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-1105, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.
    15. Agrawal, David R., 2016. "Local fiscal competition: An application to sales taxation with multiple federations," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 122-138.
    16. Feld, Lars P. & Fritz, Benedikt, 2015. "The political economy of municipal amalgamation: Evidence of common pool effects and local public debt," Freiburg Discussion Papers on Constitutional Economics 15/10, Walter Eucken Institut e.V..
    17. Saarimaa, Tuukka & Tukiainen, Janne, 2016. "Local representation and strategic voting: Evidence from electoral boundary reforms," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 31-45.
    18. Roesel, Felix, 2017. "Do mergers of large local governments reduce expenditures? – Evidence from Germany using the synthetic control method," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 22-36.
    19. Fernando A. López & Pedro J. Martínez-Ortiz & Juan-Gabriel Cegarra-Navarro, 2017. "Spatial spillovers in public expenditure on a municipal level in Spain," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 58(1), pages 39-65, January.
    20. Astrid Marie Jorde Sandsør & Torberg Falch & Bjarne Strøm, 2022. "Long‐run Effects of Local Government Mergers on Educational Attainment and Income," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 84(1), pages 185-213, February.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H70 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - General
    • H77 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Intergovernmental Relations; Federalism
    • H75 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Government: Health, Education, and Welfare

    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:70:y:2023:i:2:d:10.1007_s00168-022-01151-9. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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.