Local border reforms and economic activity
Peter Egger,
Marko Koethenbuerger and
Gabriel Loumeau
Journal of Economic Geography, 2022, vol. 22, issue 1, 81-102
Abstract:
In this article, we make use of large-scale municipal border changes in Germany to provide the first evidence on the effect of local border changes on the distribution of activity in space. To allow for a comparison of economic activity within unique geographical units over time, we use geo-coded light data as well as local land-use data. Applying a difference-in-differences approach, we find evidence that municipalities absorbing their merger partners and hosting the new administrative center experience a significant increase in local activity, while the municipalities that are being absorbed and are losing the administrative center experience a decrease in such activity. The difference between the gains in activity from absorbing municipalities and the losses from absorbed ones is positive. These previously undocumented results point to the importance of distance to the administrative center as a determinant of the spatial distribution of economic activity.
Keywords: Border effects; centripetal forces; night-light data; administrative center; municipal mergers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H7 R11 R12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)
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Working Paper: Local Border Reforms and Economic Activity (2017) 
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:jecgeo:v:22:y:2022:i:1:p:81-102.
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