Stronger together? Assessing the causal effect of inter-municipal cooperation on the efficiency of small Italian municipalities
| Autor: | Davide Luca, Félix Modrego |
|---|---|
| Přispěvatelé: | Luca, D [0000-0002-1156-9740], Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository |
| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
Matching (statistics)
Index (economics) 0211 other engineering and technologies 02 engineering and technology Environmental Science (miscellaneous) Development municipal cooperation 0502 economics and business Data envelopment analysis regression discontinuity design 050207 economics Empirical evidence Public economics Scope (project management) inter‐ matching 05 social sciences 021107 urban & regional planning Economies of scale Inter-municipal cooperation Italy efficiency inter‐ Regression discontinuity design JS Local government Municipal government Business data envelopment analysis |
| Popis: | When local governments are small and fragmented, promoting inter-municipal cooperation (IMC) among them is seen as a tool to improve the management of public services by reaping economies of scale and scope. Yet, the empirical evidence on the impacts of IMC on local governments' efficiency is scarce and inconclusive. In this paper, we investigate the experience of Italy's municipal unions (Unioni di comuni). We develop an index of technical efficiency by means of robust data envelopment analysis. We then exploit nearest-neighbor matching and fuzzy regression discontinuity design estimators to explore whether municipal unions have any impacts on the administrative efficiency of member municipalities. We fail to find any strong, significant effect. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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