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.JEL Codes: H11, H70, R11, R58

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This paper gives a brief overview of China's family planning policy which, although recently relaxed, still controls a large swath of the population. Unofficially known as the ‘one‐child policy’, it resulted from the social strife of the 1970s coupled with a Malthusian pessimism concerning the capability of the still largely closed and isolated Chinese economy to care for itself. We discuss the motivations for the policy, the unfortunate demographic future that it will create, and some policy reforms that can be undertaken today.

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