Scale and Other Determinants of Municipal Government Expenditures in Ontario: A Quantitative Analysis

Bodkin, Ronald G.; Conklin, David

doi:10.2307/2525358

Cited by 30 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Although most studies find that the evidence on economies of scale in local government is inconclusive, some find a tendency for very small municipalities to be inefficient (e.g. Solé-Ollé & Bosch 2005;Breunig & Rocaboy 2008;Bodkin & Conklin 1971). We therefore investigate whether small municipalities gain more from amalgamation than somewhat larger ones.…”

Section: (Insert Figure 1 About Here)mentioning

confidence: 98%

Jurisdiction Size and Local Government Policy Expenditure: Assessing the Effect of Municipal Amalgamation

Houlberg²,

et al. 2016

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Across the developed world, the last 50 years have seen a dramatic wave of municipal mergers, often motivated by a quest for economies of scale. Re-examining the theoretical arguments invoked to justify these reforms, we find that, in fact, there is no compelling reason to expect them to yield net gains. Potential savings in, for example, administrative costs are likely to be offset by opposite effects for other domains. Past attempts at empirical assessment have been bedeviled by endogeneity—which municipalities amalgamate is typically nonrandom—creating a danger of bias. We exploit the particular characteristics of a recent Danish reform to provide more credible difference-in-differences estimates of the effect of mergers. The result turns out to be null: cost savings in some areas were offset by deterioration in others, while for most public services jurisdiction size did not matter at all. Given significant transition costs, the finding raises questions about the rationale behind a global movement that has already restructured local government on almost all continents.

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confidence: 98%

Jurisdiction Size and Local Government Policy Expenditure: Assessing the Effect of Municipal Amalgamation

Houlberg²,

et al. 2016

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“…Following the traditional literature on sprawl, population size and growth are widely accepted variables in order to explain the effects of unregulated development on public expenditure. Bodkin and Conklin (1971) suggest that the relationship between population size and expenditures varies from one expenditure category to another. Ladd (1992) Ulfarsson (2008) find a negative relationship between population change and total direct expenditures and other expenditures such as education, housing and community development, parks and recreation, police protection, and solid waste management.…”

Section: Populationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our model considers seven independent variables (all expressed in logs, see Table 2) and a dummy variable for each Regional Government. Other works using a similar approach are, among others, Bodkin and Conklin (1971), and Holcombe and Williams (2008).…”

Section: Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban Sprawl and the Cost of Public Services: An Evaluation of Spanish Local Governments

Benito¹,

Bastida²,

Guillamón³

2010

LEX

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This paper evaluates the impact of urban sprawl on municipal expenditures, considering all the 3,179 Spanish municipalities with more than 1,000 inhabitants in 2005. We have ascertained that there is an influence of urban sprawl on per capita spending: the higher the population density, the lower the total investment and current expenditures per capita. This result supports the claims in favour of smart growth in municipalities. Furthermore, the economic level exerts a positive influence on expenditures per capita. Concerning social factors, our data show that population yields economies of scale to a limit (the function presents a U-shape): from the point of the minimum per-capita spending, if the population keeps on growing, per-capita spending rises. KEYWORDS: • urban sprawl • municipal spending • public services • smart growth • Spain

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“…He fitted a quadratic function of population and found inverted U-shaped relationships with various kinds of expenditures, which suggest the existence of economies of scale. Bodkin and Conklin (1971) conducted a similar analysis on per capita local public expenditures. They found a U-shaped relationship between per capita total expenditure and population but did not find U-shaped relationships with some specific public expenditure items.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Efficient scale of prefectural government in China

Fukushige

Shi

2015

China Financ. and Econ. Rev.

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Scale and Other Determinants of Municipal Government Expenditures in Ontario: A Quantitative Analysis

Cited by 30 publications

References 12 publications

Jurisdiction Size and Local Government Policy Expenditure: Assessing the Effect of Municipal Amalgamation

Jurisdiction Size and Local Government Policy Expenditure: Assessing the Effect of Municipal Amalgamation

Urban Sprawl and the Cost of Public Services: An Evaluation of Spanish Local Governments

Efficient scale of prefectural government in China

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