IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/use/tkiwps/1505.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Optimum Size of Local Public Administration

Author

Listed:
  • J.A. Bikker
  • D.E. van der Linde

Abstract

A renewed interest in decentralization has profoundly affected local public governance around the world. Faced with an increasing number of tasks, Dutch municipalities have recently sought physical centralization, merging into larger jurisdictions in order to target new policy areas more effectively and cost efficiently. Is such a policy of physical centralization wise? We study economies of scale in local public administration, and find – given transfer payments from central government and current cooperation between municipalities and after controlling for geographical, demographic and socio-economic variables – substantial unused scale economies of 20% for the average municipality. Between 2005 and 2014 the optimum size of municipalities increases from around 49,000 to 66,260 inhabitants, pointing at an increased importance of fixed costs relative to variable costs in local public administration. For other local government activities, we find either lower or no optimum scales.

Suggested Citation

  • J.A. Bikker & D.E. van der Linde, 2015. "The Optimum Size of Local Public Administration," Working Papers 15-05, Utrecht School of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:use:tkiwps:1505
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://dspace.library.uu.nl/bitstream/handle/1874/315838/Optimal_size_of_local_administration_tcm47_321692.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Koethenbuerger, Marko, 2008. "Revisiting the "Decentralization Theorem"--On the role of externalities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 116-122, July.
    2. Reingewertz, Yaniv, 2012. "Do municipal amalgamations work? Evidence from municipalities in Israel," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 240-251.
    3. Federico Belotti & Silvio Daidone & Giuseppe Ilardi & Vincenzo Atella, 2013. "Stochastic frontier analysis using Stata," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 13(4), pages 718-758, December.
    4. Allers, Maarten & Geertsema, Bieuwe, 2014. "The effects of local government amalgamation on public spending and service levels," Research Report 14019-EEF, University of Groningen, Research Institute SOM (Systems, Organisations and Management).
    5. Sherrill Shaffer, 1998. "Functional Forms and Declining Average Costs," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 14(2), pages 91-115, October.
    6. J.A. Bikker, 2013. "Is there an optimal pension fund size? A scale-economy analysis of administrative and investment costs," Working Papers 13-06, Utrecht School of Economics.
    7. Meeusen, Wim & van den Broeck, Julien, 1977. "Efficiency Estimation from Cobb-Douglas Production Functions with Composed Error," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 18(2), pages 435-444, June.
    8. White, Halbert, 1980. "Using Least Squares to Approximate Unknown Regression Functions," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 21(1), pages 149-170, February.
    9. Charles M. Tiebout, 1956. "A Pure Theory of Local Expenditures," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 64, pages 416-416.
    10. Albert Solé-Ollé & Núria Bosch, 2005. "On the Relationship between Authority Size and the Costs of Providing Local Services: Lessons for the Design of Intergovernmental Transfers in Spain," Public Finance Review, , vol. 33(3), pages 343-384, May.
    11. Wallace E. Oates & Wallace E. Oates, 2004. "An Essay on Fiscal Federalism," Chapters, in: Environmental Policy and Fiscal Federalism, chapter 22, pages 384-414, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    12. Geys, Benny & Heinemann, Friedrich & Kalb, Alexander, 2007. "Local Governments in the Wake of Demographic Change: Efficiency and Economies of Scale in German Municipalities," ZEW Discussion Papers 07-036, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    13. Panizza, Ugo, 1999. "On the determinants of fiscal centralization: Theory and evidence," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(1), pages 97-139, October.
    14. Michel Dietsch, 1993. "Economies of scale and scope in French commercial banking industry," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 35-50, June.
    15. repec:dgr:rugsom:14019-eef is not listed on IDEAS
    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. Stefano Manestra & Giovanna Messina & Anna Peta, 2018. "Is there strength in unity? Some preliminary evidence on inter-municipal cooperation in Italy," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 452, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.

    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. Miriam Hortas-Rico & Vicente Rios, 2020. "Is there an optimal size for local governments? A spatial panel data model approach," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(7), pages 958-973, July.
    2. Martinez-Vazquez, Jorge & McNab, Robert M., 2003. "Fiscal Decentralization and Economic Growth," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(9), pages 1597-1616, September.
    3. Robert P. Inman, 2008. "Federalism's Values and the Value of Federalism," NBER Working Papers 13735, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. 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.
    5. Andreas P. Kyriacou & Oriol Roca-Sagalés, 2019. "Local Decentralization and the Quality of Public Services in Europe," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 145(2), pages 755-776, September.
    6. Feld, Lars P. & Frey, Christian & Schaltegger, Christoph A. & Schmid, Lukas A., 2021. "Fiscal federalism and income inequality: An empirical analysis for Switzerland," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 463-494.
    7. Che, Jiahua & Chung, Kim-Sau & Lu, Yang K., 2017. "Decentralization and political career concerns," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 201-210.
    8. 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.
    9. J.A. Bikker, 2013. "Is there an optimal pension fund size? A scale-economy analysis of administrative and investment costs," Working Papers 13-06, Utrecht School of Economics.
    10. Aslim, Erkmen Giray & Neyapti, Bilin, 2017. "Optimal fiscal decentralization: Redistribution and welfare implications," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 224-234.
    11. Saarimaa, Tuukka & Tukiainen, Janne, 2015. "Common pool problems in voluntary municipal mergers," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 140-152.
    12. Roberto Dell’Anno & Désirée Teobaldelli, 2015. "Keeping both corruption and the shadow economy in check: the role of decentralization," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 22(1), pages 1-40, February.
    13. Germà Bel & Mildred E. Warner, 2016. "Factors explaining inter-municipal cooperation in service delivery: a meta-regression analysis," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 19(2), pages 91-115, April.
    14. Milan Jílek, 2015. "Factors of Tax Decentralization in OECD-Europe Countries," European Financial and Accounting Journal, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2015(2), pages 33-49.
    15. Jacob A. Bikker & Jeroen J. Meringa, 2022. "Have scale effects on cost margins of pension fund investment portfolios disappeared?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(39), pages 4501-4518, August.
    16. Jacob A. Bikker, 2017. "Is THERE AN OPTIMAL PENSION FUND SIZE? A SCALE-ECONOMY ANALYSIS OF ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 84(2), pages 739-769, June.
    17. Fitjar, Rune Dahl, 2019. "2019/01 Merging city and suburban governments: A public choice perspective on the Norwegian local government reform," UiS Working Papers in Economics and Finance 2019/1, University of Stavanger.
    18. Antonio Nicolás Bojanic, 2020. "The empirical evidence on the determinants of fiscal decentralization," Revista Finanzas y Politica Economica, Universidad Católica de Colombia, vol. 12(1), pages 271-302, June.
    19. Reingewertz, Yaniv, 2014. "Fiscal Decentralization - a Survey of the Empirical Literature," MPRA Paper 59889, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Bellofatto, Antonio Andrés & Besfamille, Martín, 2021. "Tax decentralization notwithstanding regional disparities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Fiscal federalism; Decentralization; Local public administration; municipalities;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:use:tkiwps:1505. 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: Marina Muilwijk (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eiruunl.html .

    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.