<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Municipal amalgamation reforms have been advocated as ways to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance capacity in local government service provision. Research on the consequences of amalgamations has reached maturity in terms of theories, research designs and methods, justifying a systematic survey of results. This article provides a synthesis of the empirical literature published over the last 20 years, organizing the effects of amalgamations into three categories: economic efficiency and cost savings, managerial implications, and democratic outcomes. Despite the significant variation across countries and reforms, some regularities emerge: cost savings being primarily limited to general administration expenditures (wages, office supplies, and so on), few changes in the quality of local services, and the diminished quality of local democracy. Several studies point to amalgamation reforms experiencing a trade-off between efficiency and democracy.</p></abstract>

Municipal amalgamation reforms have been advocated as ways to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance capacity in local government service provision. Research on the consequences of amalgamations has reached maturity in terms of theories, research designs and methods, justifying a systematic survey of results. This article provides a synthesis of the empirical literature published over the last 20 years, organizing the effects of amalgamations into three categories: economic efficiency and cost savings, managerial implications, and democratic outcomes. Despite the significant variation across countries and reforms, some regularities emerge: cost savings being primarily limited to general administration expenditures (wages, office supplies, and so on), few changes in the quality of local services, and the diminished quality of local democracy. Several studies point to amalgamation reforms experiencing a trade-off between efficiency and democracy.

Municipal amalgamations and their effects: a literature review

Miscellanea Geographica

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"Municipal amalgamations and their effects: a literature review"}

Municipal amalgamation reforms have been advocated as ways to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance capacity in local government service provision....

Search Terms	Web of Science 32	Scopus 61
“municipal amalgamations”	32	61
“local government amalgamations”	4	20
“municipal mergers”	34	61
“local government mergers”	3	5
“municipal” AND “territorial reforms”	4	14
“local government” AND “territorial reforms”	6	26
“territorial local government reforms”	1	1
TOTAL	84	188

Municipal amalgamations and their effects: a literature review

Published Online: Mar 30, 2018

Page range: 5 - 15

Received: Feb 09, 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/mgrsd-2018-0005

Keywords
Municipal amalgamations, fragmentation, efficiency, costs, democratic outcomes

© 2018 University of Warsaw – Faculty of Geography and Regional Studies, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Figure 1

Web of Science and Scopus Key Word Search Results

Municipal amalgamations and their effects: a literature review

Published Online: Mar 30, 2018

Page range: 5 - 15

Received: Feb 09, 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/mgrsd-2018-0005

KeywordsMunicipal amalgamations, fragmentation, efficiency, costs, democratic outcomes

© 2018 University of Warsaw – Faculty of Geography and Regional Studies, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Figure 1

Web of Science and Scopus Key Word Search Results

Keywords
Municipal amalgamations, fragmentation, efficiency, costs, democratic outcomes