Seminar: Local government amalgamations and public spending. Evicence from 15 years of municipal boundary reform

Time: 13.00-14.00 hours
Location: CPB-office, Van Stolkweg 14, The Hague

Presentation: Bieuwe Geertsema (RUG)

Discussant: Mark Kattenberg (CPB)

Language: English

Registration:  Please register by sending an email to seminars@cpb.nl.

Abstract subject
We study how municipal amalgamation affects local government spending, using data from the Netherlands. We apply a dynamic panel data model and control for spatial spending interaction, using different amalgamation dummies to isolate the effects before amalgamation, and in the short and long run after. As an extension, we study to which extent the aggregate amalgamation effect is the result of a number of different effects. We study the occurence of economies of scale, the possible effects of changes in political ambitions driving changes in public service levels, and the influence of differences in political preferences between amalgamation partners on the amalgamation effect.

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