The Economic Impact of City-County Consolidations: A Synthetic Control Approach

Joshua Hall, Josh Matti and Yang Zhou
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Yang Zhou: West Virginia University, Department of Economics

No 17-08, Working Papers from Department of Economics, West Virginia University

Abstract: Although more rapid development is a primary motivation behind city-county consolidations, relatively few empirical papers explore the actual impact of consolidation on development. This study uses the synthetic control method (SCM) to examine the long-term impact of city-county consolidations on per capita income, population, and employment. The results from the three cases explored indicate that consolidation does not guarantee development and can actually have negative effects. Additionally, the effects vary based upon the county, time horizon, and development measure.

Keywords: local governments; city-county consolidation; development; synthetic control method (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H11 H70 R11 R58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 40 pages
Date: 2017-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ure
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http://busecon.wvu.edu/phd_economics/pdf/17-08.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The economic impact of city–county consolidations: a synthetic control approach (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wvu:wpaper:17-08

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