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Evidence On Economies Of Scale In Local Public Service Provision: A Meta-Analysis, Juan Luis Gómez-Reino, Santiago Lago-Peñas, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez

ICEPP Working Papers

The standard theory of optimal jurisdictional size hinges on the existence of economies of scale in the provision of local public goods and services. However, despite its relevance for forced local amalgamation programs and related policies, the empirical evidence on the existence of such economies of scale remains elusive. The main goal of this paper is to produce an updated and comprehensive quantitative review of the existence of economies of scale in the provision of local public goods using a meta-analysis approach to systematize the wide range of empirical approaches and modeling frameworks found in the previous literature. Our analysis …