A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal

Electoral vulnerability and size of local governments: Evidence from voting on municipal mergers




AuthorsAri Hyytinen, Tuukka Saarimaa, Janne Tukiainen

Publication year2014

JournalJournal of Public Economics

Journal acronymJPubE

Volume120

First page 193

Last page204

DOIhttps://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2014.09.010(external)

Web address https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047272714002035(external)


Abstract

We analyze how anticipated changes in the electoral vulnerability of
municipal councilors affect their voting behavior over municipal
mergers. The electoral vulnerability changes due to a merger because it
changes the composition of political competitors and the number of
available seats in the next election. We use this variation for
identification and find that the smaller the increase in the electoral
vulnerability of a councilor, the more likely he is to vote for the
merger. The documented effect is not driven by the behavioral response
of the voters, or by party-line considerations. The councilors' desire
to avoid personal electoral competition may lead to sub-optimally small
municipalities from the local citizens' point of view.



Last updated on 2024-26-11 at 13:49