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Citizens’ support for inter-municipal cooperation: evidence from a survey in the German state of Hesse

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  • Christian Bergholz
  • Ivo Bischoff
Abstract
Inter-municipal cooperation (IMC) is often proposed as a politically feasible way by which rural municipalities can cope with intensified interregional competition and demographic change. We provide first evidence on citizens’ support for IMC using survey data from rural Germany. We find little evidence that citizens are more willing to support IMC in munici-palities that can – by the logic of economic theory – expect higher net benefits from IMC. Citizens’ support for IMC is primarily shaped by individual-level factors like the level of education, trust in local politicians and the degree of emotional attachment to the home mu-nicipality. Citizens’ beliefs regarding the economic and political consequences of IMC are found to have the largest marginal effect by far. Regressions predicting interpersonal differ-ences in these beliefs show that these beliefs have to be considered independent drivers of policy preferences. This result suggests that more research is needed to better understand the factors shaping citizens’ understanding of how economic policy works. This lack of under-standing applies to virtually all fields of economic policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Christian Bergholz & Ivo Bischoff, 2019. "Citizens’ support for inter-municipal cooperation: evidence from a survey in the German state of Hesse," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(12), pages 1268-1283, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:51:y:2019:i:12:p:1268-1283
    DOI: 10.1080/00036846.2018.1527444
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    Cited by:

    1. Christian Bergholz & Ivo Bischoff, 2018. "Local council members’ view on intermunicipal cooperation: does office-related self-interest matter?," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(12), pages 1624-1635, December.
    2. Ivo Bischoff & Eva Wolfschütz, 2021. "Inter-municipal cooperation in administrative tasks – the role of population dynamics and elections," Local Government Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(4), pages 568-592, July.
    3. Blesse, Sebastian & Heinemann, Friedrich, 2020. "Citizens’ trade-offs in state merger decisions: Evidence from a randomized survey experiment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 438-471.
    4. Ivo Bischoff & Eva Wolfschuetz, 2017. "The Emergence of Inter-Municipal Cooperation – A Hazard Model Approach," MAGKS Papers on Economics 201744, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    5. Mona Förtsch & Felix Rösel, 2020. "Gebietsreformen reduzieren das Heimatgefühl," ifo Dresden berichtet, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 27(01), pages 03-05, February.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H77 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Intergovernmental Relations; Federalism
    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior

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